Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 2016.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce
Other Authors: Silvija Gradečak
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108216
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author Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce
author2 Silvija Gradečak
author_facet Silvija Gradečak
Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce
author_sort Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce
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description Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 2016.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1082162019-04-10T11:12:12Z Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications Hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce Silvija Gradečak Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Materials Science and Engineering. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 2016. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires with excellent crystal quality can be grown vertically aligned from a substrate using hydrothermal synthesis, a low-cost, scalable process that is compatible with many semiconductor processing techniques. However, precise control over nanowire array dimensions such as nanowire spacing, diameter, length, and alignment, which is important for optoelectronic device applications, has proven elusive due to lack of understanding regarding fundamental aqueous growth mechanisms at the nanoscale. Here, we utilize electron-beam lithography to template ZnO seed layers, demonstrating that seed layer engineering via judicious choice of seed deposition conditions and annealing can yield well-aligned nanowire arrays with single nanowire spatial precision on a variety of device relevant substrates. Subsequently, we use bottom-up patterning techniques and investigate the competition between diffusive transport and surface reaction in hydrothermal growth to achieve control over nanowire spacing and enhanced nanowire array uniformity over length scales suitable for photovoltaic (PV) device fabrication. By analyzing the role of temperature, concentration, and areal seed density on the balance between diffusion vs. reaction rates at the solution-nanowire interface, we show that the c-facet grows via the direct incorporation mechanism. With this knowledge, we use additives to shift the nanowire growth system into a reaction-limited regime, making nanowire growth rate independent of the patterned template. As a consequence, we achieve ZnO nanowire array uniformity that is critical for device applications. by Jian Wei Jayce Cheng. Ph. D. 2017-04-18T16:37:46Z 2017-04-18T16:37:46Z 2016 2016 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108216 980870732 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 171 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Materials Science and Engineering.
Cheng, Jian Wei Jayce
Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title_full Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title_fullStr Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title_full_unstemmed Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title_short Hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
title_sort hydrothermal synthesis of zinc oxide nanowire arrays for photovoltaic applications
topic Materials Science and Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/108216
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