Browsing by Author "Hsu, Wei-Chih"

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CARBON-DOPED TiO2 NANOTUBES: EXPERIMENTAL AND COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES
(2013-05-01)
Huang, Wen-Fei
;
Wu, Pin-Jiun
;
Hsu, Wei-Chih
;
Wu, Chih-Wei
;
Liang, K. S.
C-doped TiO2 nanotubes (NTs) with anatase structure, prepared by anodizing the polished Ti foils, were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and synchrotron-based X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). XPS results show electron losses in C atoms, no electron change in Ti atoms, and two doping energy levels appeared in band gaps. Structural geometries, DOSs, PDOSs, and Bader charge analyses of C-doped TiO2 anatase are predicted by periodic DFT calculations. Eight doping positions were taken into consideration: two substitutional cases (in oxygen and titanium sites) and six interstitial cases. We found that the interstitial carbon doping type is the most stable one, whereas the substitutional cases are rather unstable. Band-gap modifications can also be found in oxygen substitution, but not in titanium substitution. Both band-gap modification and non-band-gap modification are found in the interstitial carbon doping. In these eight C-doping systems, only the C atom in the oxygen substitution case gains electrons, 1.14 e, and others present electron losses within 0.5-4.00 e. The results of XPS measurements, DOSs calculations, and Bader charge analyses show that carbon interstitial is the most likely doping type for the C-doped TiO2 NTs.
Combined micro- and nano-scale surface textures for enhanced near-infrared light harvesting in silicon photovoltaics
(2011-03-04)
Chang, Chia-Hua
;
Yu, Peichen
;
Hsu, Min-Hsiang
;
Tseng, Ping-Cheng
;
Chang, Wei-Lun
As silicon photovoltaics evolve towards thin-wafer technologies, efficient optical absorption for the near-infrared wavelengths has become particularly challenging. In this work, we present a solution that employs combined micro- and nano-scale surface textures to increase light harvesting in the near-infrared for crystalline silicon photovoltaics, and discuss the associated antireflection and scattering mechanisms. The surface textures are achieved by uniformly depositing a layer of indium-tin-oxide nanowhiskers on micro-grooved silicon substrates using electron-beam evaporation. The nanowhiskers facilitate optical transmission in the near-infrared by functioning as impedance matching layers with effective refractive indices gradually varying from 1 to 1.3. Materials with such unique refractive index characteristics are not readily available in nature. As a result, the solar cell with combined textures achieves over 90% external quantum efficiencies for a broad wavelength range of 460-980 nm, which is crucial to the development of advanced thin-substrate silicon solar cells.
Enhanced angular characteristics of indium tin oxide nanowhisker-coated silicon solar cells
(2011-05-09)
Chang, Chia-Hua
;
Hsu, Min-Hsiang
;
Tseng, Ping-Chen
;
Yu, Peichen
;
Chang, Wei-Lun
Omnidirectional and broadband light harvesting is critical to photovoltaics due to the sun's movement and its wide spectral range of radiation. In this work, we demonstrate distinctive indium-tin-oxide nanowhiskers that achieve superior angular and spectral characteristics for crystalline silicon solar cells using angle-resolved reflectance spectroscopy. The solar-spectrum weighted reflectance is well below 6% for incident angles of up to 70 and for the wavelength range between 400nm and 1000nm. As a result, the nanowhisker coated solar cell exhibits broadband quantum efficiency characteristics and enhanced short-circuit currents for large angles of incidence. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America