Photovoltaic properties of GaAs:Be nanowire arrays

Arrays of GaAs:Be nanowires are synthesized by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs(111)B substrates. Prototypes of photovoltaic converters in which the grown nanowire arrays are used as active layers are produced by means of successive photolithography, etching, and metallization processes. Studying the photovoltaic properties of the fabricated structures using a solar radiation simulator demonstrates that the solarenergy conversion efficiency is about 0.1%. The value of the efficiency recalculated with the area occupied by the p -type nanowires on the surface of the n -type GaAs substrate taken into account amounts to 1.1%.