Nonepitaxial Thin-Film InP for Scalable and Efficient Photocathodes

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• 作者：Mark Hettick ; Maxwell Zheng ; Yongjing Lin ; Carolin M. Sutter-Fella ; Joel W. Ager ; Ali Javey
• 刊名：The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：June 18, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：6
• 期：12
• 页码：2177-2182
• 全文大小：318K
• ISSN：1948-7185

文摘

To date, some of the highest performance photocathodes of a photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell have been shown with single-crystalline p-type InP wafers, exhibiting half-cell solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiencies of over 14%. However, the high cost of single-crystalline InP wafers may present a challenge for future large-scale industrial deployment. Analogous to solar cells, a thin-film approach could address the cost challenges by utilizing the benefits of the InP material while decreasing the use of expensive materials and processes. Here, we demonstrate this approach, using the newly developed thin-film vapor鈥搇iquid鈥搒olid (TF-VLS) nonepitaxial growth method combined with an atomic-layer deposition protection process to create thin-film InP photocathodes with large grain size and high performance, in the first reported solar device configuration generated by materials grown with this technique. Current鈥搗oltage measurements show a photocurrent (29.4 mA/cm²) and onset potential (630 mV) approaching single-crystalline wafers and an overall power conversion efficiency of 11.6%, making TF-VLS InP a promising photocathode for scalable and efficient solar hydrogen generation.