Single CdSe nanobelts-on-electrodes Schottky junction solar cells

To elucidate the intrinsic characteristics and limits of nanostructured solar cells, it is necessary to initiate studies of exploiting single nanostructures as photovoltaic elements. It is interesting to develop simple and effective methods to construct single nanostructured solar cells. In this paper, we synthesized single-crystalline CdSe nanobelts and reported their Schottky junction solar cells by a standard electron-beam lithography process. A single CdSe nanobelt was directly put on the top of an Au electrode to form a Schottky junction and the other end of the nanobelt was covered with Al/Au film to form an Ohmic contact electrode. The optimized solar cell devices showed a short-circuit current of 0.29 nA, an open-circuit voltage of 0.11 V and a cell efficiency of 1.22%. Our method presents a promising route to construct single-nanostructure junction solar cells that are applicable for emerging nanoelectronic devices.