Photovoltaic devices fabricated from nanostructured template

Abstract

Photovoltaic devices, such as solar cells, and methods for their manufacture are disclosed. A device may be characterized by an architecture having a nanostructured template made from an n-type first charge transfer material with template elements between about 1 nm and about 500 nm in diameter with about 10 12 to 10 16 elements/m 2 . A p-type second charge-transfer material optionally coats the walls of the template elements leaving behind additional space. A p-type third charge-transfer material fills the additional space volumetrically interdigitating with the second charge transfer material.

1 . A method for making a photovoltaic device, comprising the steps of:
 forming a nanostructured template from a first charge-transfer material and with template elements distributed in a substantially uniform fashion;   coating one or more walls of the template elements with a second charge-transfer material in a way that leaves additional space, wherein the second charge-transfer material has complementary charge-transfer properties with respect to the first charge-transfer material; and filling the additional space with a third charge-transfer material.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the first charge-transfer material includes titanium oxide or zinc oxide. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein forming a nanostructured template includes anodizing a layer of metal. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising disposing an interfacial layer between the second and third charge transfer materials. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the third charge-transfer material includes one or more elongated structures that interdigitate with the second charge transfer material. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising capping one or more tips of the elongated structures with a short-proofing material. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein coating one or more walls of the template elements with the second charge-transfer material includes depositing the second charge transfer material on the walls of the nanostructured template. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein depositing the second charge transfer material on the walls of the nanostructured template includes the use of a technique selected from the group of electrochemical deposition, electroless (chemical bath) deposition, layer-by-layer deposition, evaporation, sputtering, plating, ion-plating, molecular beam epitaxy, and sol-gel based deposition, spray pyrolysis, vapor-phase deposition, solvent vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, atomic vapor deposition, metal-organic vapor phase deposition, metal-organic-vapor-phase epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, self-assembly, electro-static self-assembly, melt-filling/coating electro-deposition, electro-plating, ion-plating, or liquid phase deposition. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein filling the additional space with the third charge transfer material includes depositing the third charge transfer material by a technique selected from the group of electrochemical deposition, electroless (chemical bath) deposition, layer-by-layer deposition, evaporation, sputtering, plating, ion-plating, molecular beam epitaxy, and sol-gel based deposition, spray pyrolysis, vapor-phase deposition, solvent vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition, atomic vapor deposition, metal-organic vapor phase deposition, metal-organic-vapor-phase epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition, metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, self-assembly, electro-static self-assembly, melt-filling/coating electro-deposition, electro-plating, ion-plating, or liquid phase deposition.