Local V(OC) Measurements by Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Applied on P-I-N Radial Junction Si Nanowires

This work focuses on the extraction of the open circuit voltage (V(OC)) on photovoltaic nanowires by surface photovoltage (SPV) based on Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) measurements. In a first approach, P-I-N radial junction (RJ) silicon nanowire (SiNW) devices were investigated under illumination by KPFM and current-voltage (I-V) analysis. Within 5%, the extracted SPV correlates well with the V(OC). In a second approach, local SPV measurements were applied on single isolated radial junction SiNWs pointing out shadowing effects from the AFM tip that can strongly impact the SPV assessment. Several strategies in terms of AFM tip shape and illumination orientation have been put in place to minimize this effect. Local SPV measurements on isolated radial junction SiNWs increase logarithmically with the illumination power and demonstrate a linear behavior with the V(OC). The results show notably that contactless measurements of the V(OC) become feasible at the scale of single photovoltaic SiNW devices.