Photovoltaic applications of micro- and nano-crystalline silicon carbide

Abstract

One of the challenges on the way to optimized solar cells is to make the thickness of the individual layers smaller than the diffusion length of the charge carriers. In this work, we propose 3C-SiC microcrystals grown by a sol-gel based process as a promising acceptor material for photovoltaic applications. Theμc-SiC samples were characterized by optical spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). The experimental data is analyzed with the help ofab-inito calculations in the framework of density functional theory (DFT) resulting in electronic band structures andg-tensors. Based on this, a possible scenario for the observed acceptor process is discussed.