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Nanostructure Engineering for Photovoltaics
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- Author / Creator
- Xiong, Qiuyang
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The lead sulfide colloidal quantum dots (PbS CQD) solar cell has attracted wide attention in recent years for its facile fabrication process and low cost. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of PbS CQD cell is still low due to the trade-off between light absorption and carrier collection inside the absorption layer. The advancement of light trapping techniques has provided a solution to improve the PCE by increasing light absorption capability. In this thesis, two-dimensional (2D) periodic nanostructures have been fabricated using nanosphere lithography (NSL) and the fabrication process is optimized for large area and high quality nanostructures. To achieve light trapping, the fabricated structures are designed as two kinds: the metallic structure and the dielectric structure. The metallic structure can be used as the back reflector in solar cells and the dielectric structure made with conductive materials can be used as the transparent electrode. The surface plasmon (SP) modes excited on metallic nanostructures have been investigated and their applications for solar cells are discussed. For the dielectric structure, PbS CQD solar cells incorporated with patterned indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) electrodes are numerically studied with finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation. More than 10% overall absorption enhancement has been achieved with the presence of fabricated nanostructures.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2016
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.