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AssigneesEgypt Nanotechnology Center, International Business Machines Corporation
InventorsKeith E. Fogel, Jeehwan Kim, Devendra K. Sadana, George S. Tulevski, Ahmed Abou-Kandil, Hisham S. Mohamed, Mohamed Saad, Osama Tobail
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A Schottky-barrier-reducing layer is provided between a p-doped semiconductor layer and a transparent conductive material layer of a photovoltaic device. The Schottky-barrier-reducing layer can be a conductive material layer having a work function that is greater than the work function of the transparent conductive material layer. The conductive material layer can be a carbon-material layer such as a carbon nanotube layer or a graphene layer. Alternately, the conductive material layer can be another transparent conductive material layer having a greater work function than the transparent conductive material layer. The reduction of the Schottky barrier reduces the contact resistance across the transparent material layer and the p-doped semiconductor layer, thereby reducing the series resistance and increasing the efficiency of the photovoltaic device.
A photovoltaic device comprising a stack, from one side to another side, of a transparent conductive material layer, a Schottky-barrier-reducing layer contacting said transparent conductive material layer, and a p-doped semiconductor layer, wherein a Schottky barrier across said stack has a lower contact resistance than a Schottky barrier across a comparative exemplary stack that includes all layers of said stack less said Schottky-barrier-reducing layer, wherein said Schottky-barrier-reducing layer is an optically transparent layer including an allotrope of carbon and is in direct contact with said p-doped semiconductor layer and is in direct contact with said transparent conductive material layer, wherein said Schottky-barrier-reducing layer includes a same material as said transparent conductive material layer and has a different doping than said transparent conductive material layer.
A method of forming a photovoltaic device comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.