Measurement of the Electrical Resistance of n-Type Si Microwire/p-Type Conducting Polymer Junctions for Use in Artificial Photosynthesis
Abstract
The junction between n-type silicon microwires and p-type conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate)) was investigated using a soft contact method. Dopant levels within the microwires were varied during growth to give a highly-doped region for improved contact and a low-doped region for light absorption. The low-doped region of the microwires had a dopant density of 5 X 10(17) cm(-3) while the highly-doped region had an increased dopant density of 5 X 10(18) cm(-3) over similar to 20 mu m. Uniform, highly-doped microwires, with a dopant density of 4 X 10(19) cm(3), were used as a comparison. Regions of highly-doped n-type Si microwires (N-D = 5 X 10(18) cm(-3) and 4 X 10(19) cm(-3)) contacted by PEDOT:PSS showed a significantly lower junction resistance compared to the low-doped (3 X 10(17) cm(-3)) regions of the microwire. Junctions incorporating the metal catalyst used during growth were also investigated. Microwires with copper at the interface had similar currentvoltage characteristics to those observed for the highly-doped microwire/conducting polymer junction; however, junctions that incorporated gold exhibited significantly lower resistances, decreasing the iR contribution of the junction by an order of magnitude with respect to the total voltage drop in the entire structure.
Additional Information
© 2014 American Chemical Society. Received: September 11, 2014. Revised: October 29, 2014. Published: October 29, 2014. Financial support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund, and the University of Manitoba is gratefully acknowledged. The work reported made use of surface characterization infrastructure in the Manitoba Institute for Materials. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Chemical Innovation (CCI) Powering the Planet (Grants CHE-0802907, CHE-0947829, and NSF-ACCF) and made use of the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute at Caltech and the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs Program. S.A. acknowledges partial support from a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Postdoctoral Research Award, under the EERE Fuel Cell Technologies Program. This material is based in part (support for NSL) upon work performed by the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub, supported through the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Award DE-SC0004993.Attached Files
Supplemental Material - jp509211k_si_001.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 53452
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20150109-083207621
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Canada Foundation for Innovation
- Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund
- University of Manitoba
- CHE-0802907
- NSF
- CHE-0947829
- NSF
- Canada Research Chairs Program
- DE-SC0004993
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- Created
-
2015-01-09Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- CCI Solar Fuels, Kavli Nanoscience Institute, JCAP