Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol.95, No.1, 284-287, 2011
pi-Conjugated polymer/GaN Schottky solar cells
We developed heterojunction-based Schottky solar cells consisting of pi-conjugated polymers and n-type GaN. Poly (3,4-ethylendioxythiophene):poly (styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) was used as the transparent Schottky contact material and their electrical properties were investigated in comparison with those of a polyaniline (PANI) Schottky contact. The PEDOT:PSS/n-GaN/sapphire (0 0 0 1) sample exhibited high-quality rectifying characteristics with a low reverse leakage current of less than 10(-8) A/cm(2) at a reverse bias voltage of - 3 V. While investigating the photovoltaic performance, it was observed that the open-circuit voltage of the PEDOT:PSS/n-GaN/sapphire (0 0 0 1) sample reached 0.8 V, which was much superior to the photovoltage reported for a conventional metal/GaN Schottky photodetector. We also confirmed that the PEDOT:PSS is as promising a material as PANI for pi-conjugated polymer/GaN Schottky solar cells. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.