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We report the synthesis of the ZnO nanowires (NWs) with different indium concentrations by using the thermal evaporation method. The gold nanoparticles were used as the catalyst and were dispersed on the silicon wafer to facilitate the growth of the ZnO NWs. High resolution transmission electron microscopy confirms that the ZnO NWs growth relied on vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and energy dispersion spectrum detects the atomic percentages of indium in ZnO NWs. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the diameters of pure ZnO NWs range from 20 to 30 nm and the diameters of ZnO:In were increased to 50–80 nm with increasing indium doping level. X-ray diffraction results point out that the crystal quality of the ZnO NWs was worse with doping higher indium concentration. Photoluminescence (PL) study of the ZnO NWs exhibited main photoemission at 380 nm due to the recombination of excitons in near-band-edge (NBE). In addition, PL results also indicate the slightly blue shift and PL intensity decreasing of NBE emission from the ZnO NWs with higher indium concentrations could be attributed to more donor-induced trap center generations.

The optoelectric properties of GaInP p-i-n solar cells with different intrinsic layer (i-layer) thicknesses from 0.25 to 1 μm were studied. Both emission intensity and full width at half maximum features of the photoluminescence spectrum indicate that the optimum i-layer thickness would be between 0.5 and 0.75 μm. The integrated current results of photocurrent experiment also point out that the samples with 0.5 to 0.75 μm i-layer thicknesses have optimum value around 156 nA. Electroreflectance measurements reveal that the built-in electric field strength of the sample gradually deviates from the theoretical value larger when i-layer thickness of the sample is thicker than 0.75 μm. I-V measurements also confirm crystal quality for whole samples by obtaining the information about short currents of photovoltaic performances. A series of experiments reflect that thicker i-layer structure would induce more defects generation lowering crystal quality.