Controlled electrodeposition of ZnO nanostructures for enhanced light scattering properties

This paper outlined how to control density and shape of electrodeposited ZnO nanorods to achieve high scattering properties. Light scattering at nanostructured metal–semiconductor interfaces is a proven method to improve absorption in photovoltaic devices. Adjustment of nanostructure shape and mean distance is critical to achieve efficient light scattering. A simple model is introduced that predicts maximal suppression of the specular transmitted light, resulting in maximal light scattering. This model predicts in an ideal case, 50 % nanostructure coverage of the electrode. Furthermore, an optimal nanostructure height has been determined depending on the incident wavelength and the refractive indices. Experimentally, the crystal density on ITO substrates was adjusted by pulsing the deposition potential, thus, removing the requirement for an additional seeding layer. The solution of the diffusion equation indicated a break-to-pulse ratio of at least 2.4 for an efficient control of the crystal density during pulsed electrodeposition. In addition, the structure height was set by varying the number of pulse cycles. Such tailored ZnO nanostructures showed a suppression of the specular transmitted light beam of 83.5 % and a diffusive forward scattering efficiency of 39 % at a wavelength of 406 nm. Thus, the optical absorption of e.g. an 80-nm thick polymeric active layer of P3HT could be increased by 47 % by applying such tailored ZnO nanostructures.