Carbon Nanotube Sheet as Top Contact Electrode for Nanowires: Highly Versatile and Simple Process

In the past years, lots of research works were dedicated to nanowires and their integration into functional devices. However, despite the great potential of such materials, no device based on nanowires has been transferred in all-day-life. In fact, the vertical device integration is slowed down by the difficulty to contact easily the top electrode. With this work, we present a simple, elegant and versatile process for creating a top electrode contact on nanowires: a carbon nanotube sheet is suspended at the top of the nanowire field. The proof of concept is made through the realization of photovoltaic devices composed of an assembly of vertical PN-junctions based on silicon nanowires. For an illumination density of 100 mW . cm-2, our devices exhibit short circuit current density as high as 15 mA . cm-2. Due to the numerous advantages of the carbon nanotube sheets as top electrode, such as transparency, porosity, good mechanical performance and no need to embed nanowires, such simple and elegant technology should definitely find developments in every field of nanotechnology.