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ABSTRACT: Three-dimensional (3-D) nanostructures have been widely explored for efficient light trapping; however, many of the nanostructure fabrication processes reported have high cost and/or limited scalability. In this work, self-organized 3-D Al nanospike arrays were successfully fabricated on thin Al foils with controlled nanospike geometry such as height and pitch. Thereafter, photovoltaic materials of a-Si and CdTe thin films were conformally deposited on the nanospikes structures thus forming 3-D nanostructures with strong light absorption over a broad wavelength range and photon incident angle. Specifically, 100 nm-thick CdTe film on nanospikes showed 97% peak absorption, and up to 95% day-integrated sunlight absorption. These results indicate that self-organized 3-D Al nanospike arrays can serve as lightweight and low cost substrates for cost-effective thin film photovoltaics.
ACS Nano 11/2011; 5(11):9291-8. · 10.77 Impact Factor
