Graphite distributed electrodes for diamond-based photon-enhanced thermionic emission solar cells. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Girolami, Marco; Criante, Luigino; Di Fonzo, Fabio; Lo Turco, Sara; Mezzetti, Alessandro; Notargiacomo, Andrea; Pea, Marialilia; Bellucci, Alessandro; Calvani, Paolo; Valentini, Veronica; Trucchi, Daniele M.
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 111(2017)
• Page Start: 48
• Page End: 53
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2016.09.061
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: Graphite conductive vertical microchannels, fabricated by femtosecond laser treatment, are proposed as distributed electrodes in defect-engineered ("black") single-crystal diamond cathodes for innovative solar cells. Energy conversion is based on photon-enhanced thermionic emission, where the reduction of the cathode series resistance is crucial to preserve conversion efficiency. Process yield higher than 80% and resistivity as low as 0.75 ± 0.15 Ω cm were achieved by the optimization of laser parameters and the use of a multi-pass writing technique. A 100 × 100 array of graphite electrodes was integrated in a diamond-based cathode prototype, reducing the series resistance of more than 10 orders of magnitude with respect to bulk diamond. Graphical abstract: