Control of zinc oxide nanowire array properties with electron-beam lithography templating for photovoltaic applications

Hydrothermally synthesized zinc oxide nanowire arrays have been used as nanostructured acceptors in emerging photovoltaic (PV) devices. The nanoscale dimensions of such arrays allow for enhanced charge extraction from PV active layers, but the device performance critically depends on the nanowire array pitch and alignment. In this study, we templated hydrothermally-grown ZnO nanowire arrays via high-resolution electron-beam-lithography defined masks, achieving the dual requirements of high-resolution patterning at a pitch of several hundred nanometers, while maintaining hole sizes small enough to control nanowire array morphology. We investigated several process conditions, including the effect of annealing sputtered and spincoated ZnO seed layers on nanowire growth, to optimize array property metrics—branching from individual template holes and off-normal alignment. We found that decreasing template hole size decreased branching prevalence but also reduced alignment. Annealing s...

Samuel M Nicaise, Jayce J Cheng, Amirreza Kiani, Silvija Gradečak and Karl K Berggren

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