A structure includes a silicon substrate; silicon readout circuitry disposed on a first portion of a top surface of the substrate and a radiation detecting pixel disposed on a second portion of the top surface of the substrate. The pixel has a plurality of radiation detectors connected with the readout circuitry. The plurality of radiation detectors are composed of at least one visible wavelength radiation detector containing germanium and at least one infrared wavelength radiation detector containing a Group III-V semiconductor material. A method includes providing a silicon substrate; forming silicon readout circuitry on a first portion of a top surface of the substrate and forming a radiation detecting pixel, on a second portion of the top surface of the substrate, that has a plurality of radiation detectors formed to contain a visible wavelength detector composed of germanium and an infrared wavelength detector composed of a Group III-V semiconductor material.

In an embodiment of the disclosure, a structure is provided which comprises a silicon substrate and a plurality of necklaces of silicon nanowires which are in direct physical contact with a surface of the silicon substrate, wherein the necklaces cover an area of the silicon substrate.

Disclosed is a hybrid device for combining a photoelectrochemical cell and a thermoelectric element to generate hydrogen and power. The hybrid device includes: a heat source; a thermoelectric element connected to the heat source and driven by the heat source to generate a first electromotive force; and a photoelectrochemical cell connected to the thermoelectric element to receive the first electromotive force, receiving light to generate a second electromotive force, generating hydrogen by the first electromotive force and the second electromotive force, and being cooled by the thermoelectric element.

One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cell by a method of crystallizing a large-area amorphous silicon thin film using a linear electron beam, and the technical problem to be solved is to crystallize an amorphous silicon thin film, which is formed on a low-priced substrate, by means of an electron beam so as for same to easily be of high quality by having high crystallization yield and to be processed at a low temperature. To this end, one embodiment of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cell by means of a method for crystallizing a large-area amorphous silicon thin film using a linear electron beam, the method comprising: a substrate preparation step for preparing a substrate; a type 1+ amorphous silicon layer deposition step for forming a type 1+ amorphous silicon layer on the substrate; a type 1 amorphous silicon layer deposition step for forming a type 1 amorphous silicon layer on the type 1+ amorphous silicon layer; an absorption layer formation step for forming an absorption layer by radiating a linear electron beam to the type 1 amorphous silicon layer and thus crystallizing the type 1 amorphous layer and the type 1+ amorphous silicon layer; a type 2 amorphous silicon layer deposition step for forming a type 2 amorphous silicon layer on the absorption layer; and an emitter layer formation step for forming an emitter layer by radiating a linear electron beam to the type 2 amorphous silicon layer and thus crystallizing the type 2 amorphous silicon layer, wherein the linear electron beam is radiated from above type 1 and type 2 amorphous silicon layers in a linear scanning manner in which to reciprocate in a predetermined area.

A photodetector is provided with a thin film double layer heterostructure. The photodetector is comprised of: a substrate; a channel layer of a transistor deposited onto a top surface of the substrate; a source layer of the transistor deposited on the top surface of the substrate; a drain layer of the transistor deposited on the top surface of the substrate, the source layer and the drain layer disposed on opposing sides of the channel layer; a barrier layer deposited onto the channel layer; and a light absorbing layer deposited on the barrier layer. The light absorbing layer is configured to absorb light and, in response to light incident on the light absorbing layer, electrical conductance of the channel layer is changed through hot carrier tunneling from the light absorbing layer to the channel layer.

The present disclosure relates to microbolometer structures having top layers of amorphous silicon or vanadium oxide. In some examples, combinations of carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, and/or thin films can be deposited atop the existing top layer of amorphous silicon or top layer of vanadium oxide of a microbolometer structure. Such configurations can increase the sensitivity of the microbolometers to less than 4 mK, less than 2 mK, and in some examples less than 1 mK.

A p.sup. type semiconductor substrate 20 has a first principal surface 20a and a second principal surface 20b opposed to each other and includes a photosensitive region 21. The photosensitive region 21 is composed of an n.sup.+ type impurity region 23, a p.sup.+ type impurity region 25, and a region to be depleted with application of a bias voltage in the p.sup. type semiconductor substrate 20. An irregular asperity 10 is formed in the second principal surface 20b of the p.sup. type semiconductor substrate 20. An accumulation layer 37 is formed on the second principal surface 20b side of the p.sup. type semiconductor substrate 20 and a region in the accumulation layer 37 opposed to the photosensitive region 21 is optically exposed.

Methods of fabricating solar cell emitter regions using self-aligned implant and cap, and the resulting solar cells, are described. In an example, a method of fabricating an emitter region of a solar cell involves forming a silicon layer above a substrate. The method also involves implanting, through a stencil mask, dopant impurity atoms in the silicon layer to form implanted regions of the silicon layer with adjacent non-implanted regions. The method also involves forming, through the stencil mask, a capping layer on and substantially in alignment with the implanted regions of the silicon layer. The method also involves removing the non-implanted regions of the silicon layer, wherein the capping layer protects the implanted regions of the silicon layer during the removing. The method also involves annealing the implanted regions of the silicon layer to form doped polycrystalline silicon emitter regions.

Various particular embodiments include a method for forming a photodetector, including: forming a structure including a barrier layer disposed between a layer of doped silicon (Si) and a layer of germanium (Ge), the barrier layer including a crystallization window; and annealing the structure to convert, via the crystallization window, the Ge to a first composition of silicon germanium (SiGe) and the doped Si to a second composition of SiGe.

Photosensitive devices and associated methods are provided. In one aspect, for example, a photosensitive imager device can include a semiconductor layer having multiple doped regions forming a least one junction, a textured region coupled to the semiconductor layer and positioned to interact with electromagnetic radiation. The textured region can be formed from a series of shallow trench isolation features.