Evaluation of CdS Interfacial Layers in ZnO Nanowire/Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) Solar Cells

We prepare ZnO:poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) thin-film solar cells and ZnO nanowire:P3HT nanostructured solar cells and evaluate the effect of adding an interfacial layer between the ZnO and P3HT as a function of the nanowire height. We evaluate several different interlayers of CdS deposited, using two different chemical bath deposition (CBD) recipes. The height of the nanowire array is varied from a bilayer device with no nanowires up to arrays with a height of 2 μm. We find that achieving a conformal coating of the ZnO with the interfacial layer is critical to improve device performance and that CBD can be used to grow conformal films on nonuniform surfaces.