title: Controlled Defects of Fluorine-incorporated ZnO Nanorods for Photovoltaic Enhancement.
abstract: Anion passivation effect on metal-oxide nano-architecture offers a highly controllable platform for improving charge selectivity and extraction, with direct relevance to their implementation in hybrid solar cells. In current work, we demonstrated the incorporation of fluorine (F) as an anion dopant to address the defect-rich nature of ZnO nanorods (ZNR) and improve the feasibility of its role as electron acceptor. The detailed morphology evolution and defect engineering on ZNR were studied as a function of F-doping concentration (x). Specifically, the rod-shaped arrays of ZnO were transformed into taper-shaped arrays at high x. A hypsochromic shift was observed in optical energy band gap due to the Burstein-Moss effect. A substantial suppression on intrinsic defects in ZnO lattice directly epitomized the novel role of fluorine as an oxygen defect quencher. The results show that 10-FZNR/P3HT device exhibited two-fold higher power conversion efficiency than the pristine ZNR/P3HT device, primarily due to the reduced Schottky defects and charge transfer barrier. Essentially, the reported findings yielded insights on the functions of fluorine on (i) surface -OH passivation, (ii) oxygen vacancies (Vo) occupation and (iii) lattice oxygen substitution, thereby enhancing the photo-physical processes, carrier mobility and concentration of FZNR based device.
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Hock Beng
authors: HB
authors: Lee
authors: Department of Flexible and Printable Electronics, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju 561-756, Republic of Korea.
authors: Riski Titian
authors: RT
authors: Ginting
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Sin Tee
authors: ST
authors: Tan
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Chun Hui
authors: CH
authors: Tan
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Abdelelah
authors: A
authors: Alshanableh
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Hind Fadhil
authors: HF
authors: Oleiwi
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Chi Chin
authors: CC
authors: Yap
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Mohd Hafizuddin Hj
authors: MH
authors: Jumali
authors: School of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi, 43600 Selangor, Malaysia.
authors: Muhammad
authors: M
authors: Yahaya