Manufacturing photovoltaic cells having nanowires, comprises uniformly depositing sub-layer of semi-conductor material, forming a nanowire having the same type of doping on a sub-layer, and forming emitter layer on sub-layer

The process comprises uniformly depositing a sub-layer of semi-conductor material doped by first type on a conductive substrate (10), which forms a first electrode of the device, forming a nanowire (4) having the same type of doping on a sub-layer (2), forming an emitter layer (3) of same semiconductor material having a second type of doping on the sub-layer, and depositing a second electrode made of a transparent conductive material over the emitter layer at wavelengths necessary for functioning the device. The emitter layer covers the sub-layer and nanowires. The process comprises uniformly depositing a sub-layer of semi-conductor material doped by first type on a conductive substrate (10), which forms a first electrode of the device, forming a nanowire (4) having the same type of doping on a sub-layer (2), forming an emitter layer (3) of same semiconductor material having a second type of doping on the sub-layer, and depositing a second electrode made of a transparent conductive material over the emitter layer at wavelengths necessary for functioning the device. The emitter layer covers the sub-layer and nanowires, and is separated at any point of the conductive substrate by the sub-layer of semiconductor material thus forming a diode with sub-layer and nanowires. The formation of the nanowire comprises depositing a layer of catalyst material on the surface of the sub-layer, forming blocks of catalyst material at points requiring the presence of nanowires, and increasing nanowires by depositing. The semiconductor material of the second type of doping is formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and by diffusion in the nanowires and the sub-layer. An independent claim is included for a device comprising a photovoltaic cell with nanowires. L'invention concerne un procédé de fabrication de cellules photovoltaïques à nanofils (43, 43') sur un substrat conducteur (10) comprenant au moins les étapes successives suivantes : a) dépôt uniforme d'une sous-couche de matériau semi-conducteur (2), dopé selon un premier type de dopage, b) formation sur cette sous-couche d'au moins un nanofil (4), composé du même matériau que la sous-couche et ayant le même type de dopage, c) dépôt d'une couche (3) du même matériau semi-conducteur, dite couche d'émetteur, ayant un second type de dopage, cette couche recouvrant la sous-couche et les nanofils, d) dépôt d'une deuxième électrode (5) en un matériau conducteur, transparent aux longueurs d'onde voulues pour le fonc