Enhanced light harvesting of nitride-based nanopillars covered with ZnO using indium-tin oxide nanowhiskers

Nitride-based nanopillars were successfully fabricated by nanoimprint lithography. A nanowhisker of indium-tin oxide (ITO) deposited by on oblique evaporation method was investigated in nitride-based nanopillars and thin ZnO layers grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD). From the results of field-emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement, it was found that ITO whiskers grew on nitride-based nanopillars covered with ZnO. Moreover, from the results of UV-visible spectrophotometry and bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) measurements, it was found that this hybrid structure of ITO nanowhiskers above a ZnO medium enhanced the broadband and angle-independent antireflection in the range between 380 and 600 nm. We used the hybrid design of the ITO/ZnO structure to achieve the lowest reflectance value between 3.8 and 10.9% in a quantum well absorption range.