Study of SiC buffer layer thickness influence on photovoltaic properties of n-GaN NWs/SiC/p-Si heterostructure

In this paper we study the solar cell based on GaN nanowires array grown on Si substrate with buffer SiC layer via molecular beam epitaxy. Crystal quality of SiC layer and GaN nanowires was studied by means of Raman scattering technique and low temperature photoluminescence measurements. Spectral and volt-ampere characteristics of the n-GaN/SiC/p-Si heterostructures with different thickness of diffusive buffer SiC-3С layers were studied. It was shown that increase of the buffer layer thickness over 100 nm leads to rise of the open circuit voltage and to increase of the efficiency of solar cell in comparison with n-GaN/p-Si heterostructure without buffer layer. Experimental data shows the presence of the defect states at the heterointerface.