Enhanced photovoltaic effect in graphene-silicon Schottky junction under mechanical manipulation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying flexoelectric strain gradients via mechanical manipulation can significantly enhance the photovoltaic efficiency of graphene-silicon Schottky junctions, potentially advancing flexible solar cell technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel electromechanical method using the flexoelectric effect to improve the power conversion efficiency of graphene-silicon Schottky junctions.

Findings

Open-circuit voltage increased by up to 20%.

Flexoelectric strain gradients enhance PV performance.

Potential for flexible, strain-engineered solar cells.

Abstract

Graphene-silicon Schottky junction (GSJ) which has the potential for large-scale manufacturing and integration can bring new opportunities to Schottky solar cells for photovoltaic (PV) power conversion. However, the essential power conversion limitation for these devices lies in the small open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), which depends on the Schottky barrier height (SBH). In this study, we introduce an electromechanical method based on the flexoelectric effect to enhance the PV efficiency in GSJ. By atomic force microscope (AFM) tip-based indentation and in situ current measurement, the current-voltage (I-V) responses under flexoelectric strain gradient are obtained. The $V_{oc}$ is observed to increase for up to 20$\%$, leading to an evident improvement of the power conversion efficiency. Our studies suggest that strain gradient may offer unprecedented opportunities for the development of GSJ based flexo-photovoltaic applications.