Engineering Schottky contacts in open-air fabricated heterojunction solar cells to enable high performance and ohmic charge transport

Defective Indium Tin Oxide Forms an Ohmic Back Contact to an n-Type Cu2O Photoanode to Accelerate Charge-Transfer Kinetics for Enhanced Low-Bias Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

In significant contrast to the tremendous research efforts mostly geared to addressing the severe hole accumulation at the back contact of a p-type Cu₂O photocathode with a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, sluggish electron transfer from an n-type Cu₂O photoanode to a tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) substrate has been largely overlooked. To tackle this issue that has been reported to largely limit the photoelectrochemical performance of n-type Cu₂O photoanodes at a low bias, the present contribution puts forward a strategy to introduce oxygen vacancies into the ITO substrate via an unprecedented yet facile electrochemical approach. Such defect engineering turns out to decrease the work function of the ITO substrate, which in turn approaches the conduction band extremum of n-Cu₂O to highly efficiently extract the photoexcited electrons therein. Moreover, the dendritic growth of n-Cu₂O is, in the meantime, interfered by the oxygen vacancy manifested as pinholes distributed over the ITO substrate, which is thereby crystallized into several small grains with augmented surface roughness that is in favor of the injection of the photoexcited hole into the electrolyte. Such facile interfacial charge-transfer kinetics leads to a significant cathodic shift amounting to 200 mV of the onset potential to 0 V_Ag/AgCl, whereat the n-Cu₂O photoanode deposited on the defective ITO substrate delivers the maximum photocurrent density reaching 2 mA cm^-2 and, more significantly, its applied bias photon-to-current efficiency (ABPE) reaches 1.1%, which is among the highest performance reported to date for a variety of state-of-the-art metal oxide-based photoanodes in the literature.

Strongly Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance and Defect Physics of Air-Stable Bismuth Oxyiodide (BiOI)

Bismuth-based compounds have recently gained increasing attention as potentially nontoxic and defect-tolerant solar absorbers. However, many of the new materials recently investigated show limited photovoltaic performance. Herein, one such compound is explored in detail through theory and experiment: bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI). BiOI thin films are grown by chemical vapor transport and found to maintain the same tetragonal phase in ambient air for at least 197 d. The computations suggest BiOI to be tolerant to antisite and vacancy defects. All-inorganic solar cells (ITO|NiO_x |BiOI|ZnO|Al) with negligible hysteresis and up to 80% external quantum efficiency under select monochromatic excitation are demonstrated. The short-circuit current densities and power conversion efficiencies under AM 1.5G illumination are nearly double those of previously reported BiOI solar cells, as well as other bismuth halide and chalcohalide photovoltaics recently explored by many groups. Through a detailed loss analysis using optical characterization, photoemission spectroscopy, and device modeling, direction for future improvements in efficiency is provided. This work demonstrates that BiOI, previously considered to be a poor photocatalyst, is promising for photovoltaics.

Rapid open-air deposition of uniform, nanoscale, functional coatings on nanorod arrays

Coating of high-aspect-ratio nanostructures has previously been achieved using batch processes poorly suited for high-throughput manufacturing. It is demonstrated that uniform, nanoscale coatings can be rapidly deposited on zinc oxide nanorod arrays in open-air using an atmospheric pressure spatial deposition system. The morphology of the metal oxide coatings is examined and good electrical contact with the underlying nanorods is observed. The functionality of the coatings is demonstrated in colloidal quantum dot and hybrid solar cells.

Some current problems in perovskite nano-ferroelectrics and multiferroics: kinetically-limited systems of finite lateral size

We describe some unsolved problems of current interest; these involve quantum critical points in ferroelectrics and problems which are not amenable to the usual density functional theory, nor to classical Landau free energy approaches (they are kinetically limited), nor even to the Landau-Kittel relationship for domain size (they do not satisfy the assumption of infinite lateral diameter) because they are dominated by finite aperiodic boundary conditions.

Synthesis and modeling of uniform complex metal oxides by close-proximity atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition

A close-proximity atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (AP-CVD) reactor is developed for synthesizing high quality multicomponent metal oxides for electronics. This combines the advantages of a mechanically controllable substrate-manifold spacing and vertical gas flows. As a result, our AP-CVD reactor can rapidly grow uniform crystalline films on a variety of substrate types at low temperatures without requiring plasma enhancements or low pressures. To demonstrate this, we take the zinc magnesium oxide (Zn(1-x)Mg(x)O) system as an example. By introducing the precursor gases vertically and uniformly to the substrate across the gas manifold, we show that films can be produced with only 3% variation in thickness over a 375 mm(2) deposition area. These thicknesses are significantly more uniform than for films from previous AP-CVD reactors. Our films are also compact, pinhole-free, and have a thickness that is linearly controllable by the number of oscillations of the substrate beneath the gas manifold. Using photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction measurements, we show that for Mg contents below 46 at. %, single phase Zn(1-x)Mg(x)O was produced. To further optimize the growth conditions, we developed a model relating the composition of a ternary oxide with the bubbling rates through the metal precursors. We fitted this model to the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measured compositions with an error of Δx = 0.0005. This model showed that the incorporation of Mg into ZnO can be maximized by using the maximum bubbling rate through the Mg precursor for each bubbling rate ratio. When applied to poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) hybrid solar cells, our films yielded an open-circuit voltage increase of over 100% by controlling the Mg content. Such films were deposited in short times (under 2 min over 4 cm(2)).

Co-electroplated Kesterite Bifacial Thin-Film Solar Cells: A Study of Sulfurization Temperature

Earth-abundant material, kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS), demonstrates the tremendous potential to serve as the absorber layer for the bifacial thin-film solar cell. The exploration of appropriate sulfurization conditions including annealing temperature is significant to gain insight into the growth mechanism based on the substrates using transparent conductive oxides (TCO) and improve device performance. The kesterite solar absorbers were fabricated on ITO substrates by sulfurizing co-electroplated Cu-Zn-Sn-S precursors in argon diluted H2S atmosphere at different temperatures (475-550 °C) for 30 min. Experimental proof, including cross-section scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-vis-NIR transmission spectrum, and Raman and far-infrared spectroscopy, is presented for the crystallization of CZTS on an ITO substrate and the interfacial reaction between the ITO back contact and CZTS absorber. The complete conversion of precursor into CZTS requires at least 500 °C sulfurization temperature. The aggressive interfacial reaction leading to the out-diffusion of In into CZTS to a considerable extent, formation of tin sulfides, and electrically conductive degradation of ITO back contact occurs at the sulfurization temperatures higher than 500 °C. The bifacial devices obtained by 520 °C sulfurization exhibit the best conversion efficiencies and open circuit voltages. However, the presence of non-ohmic back contact (secondary diode), the short minority lifetime, and the high interfacial recombination rates negatively limit the open circuit voltage, fill factor, and efficiency, evidenced by illumination/temperature-dependent J-V, frequency-dependent capacitance-voltage (C-V-f), time-resolved PL (TRPL), and bias-dependent external quantum efficiency (EQE) measurements.