S-induced Phase Change Forming In2 O3 /In2 S3 Heterostructure for Photoelectrochemical Glucose Sensor

In the past several decades, Photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing still remains a great challenge to design highly-efficient semiconductor photocatalysts via a facile method. It is of much importance to design and synthesize various novel nanostructured sensing materials for further improving the response performance. Herein, we present an In2 O3 /In2 S3 heterostructure obtained by combining microwave assisted hydrothermal method with S-induced phase change, whose energy band and electronic structure could be adjusted by changing the S content. Combining theoretical calculation and spectroscopic techniques, the introduction of sulfur was proved to produce multifunctional interfaces, inducing the change of phase, oxygen vacancies and band gap, which accelerates the separation of photoexcited carriers and reduces their recombination, improving the electronic injection efficiency around the interface of In2 O3 /In2 S3 . As anticipated, an enhanced glucose response performance with a photocurrent of 0.6 mA cm-2 , a linear range of 0.1-1 mM and a detection limit as low as 14.5 μM has been achieved based on the In2 O3 /In2 S3 heterostructure, which is significant superior over its pure In2 O3 and S-doped In2 O3 counterparts. This efficient interfacial strategy may open a new route to manipulate the electrical structure, and energy band structure regulation of sensing material to improve the performance of photoelectrodes for PEC.

Positive Charge Holes Revealed by Energy Band Theory in Multiphase Tix O2x-1 and Exploration of its Microscopic Electromagnetic Loss Mechanism

Although numerous experimental investigations have been carried out on the problem of defect engineering in semiconductor absorbers, the relationship among charge carrier, defects, heterointerfaces, and electromagnetic (EM) wave absorption has not been established systematically. Herein, the new thermodynamic and kinetic control strategy is proposed to establish multiphase Tix O2 x -1 (1 ≤ x ≤ 6) through a hydrogenation calcination. The TiOC-900 composite shows the efficient EM wave absorption capability with a minimum reflection loss (RLmin ) of -69.6 dB at a thickness of 2.04 mm corresponding to an effective absorption bandwidth (EAB) of 4.0 GHz due to the holes induced conductance loss and heterointerfaces induced interfacial polarization. Benefiting from the controllable preparation of multiphase Tix O2 x -1 , a new pathway is proposed for designing high-efficiency EM wave absorbing semiconducting oxides. The validity of the method for adopting energy band theory to explore the underlying relations among charge carriers, defects, heterointerfaces, and EM properties in multiphase Tix O2 x -1 is demonstrated for the first time, which is of great importance in optimizing the EM wave absorption performance by electronic structure tailoring.

Analysis of SiC/Si Heterojunction Band Energy and Interface State Characteristics for SiC/Si VDMOS

SiC/Si and GaN/Si heterojunction technology has been widely used in power semiconductor devices, and SiC/Si VDMOS and GaN/Si VDMOS were proposed in our previous paper. Based on existing research, breakdown point transfer technology (BPT) was used to optimize SiC/Si VDMOS. Simulation results showed that the BV of the SiC/Si heterojunction VDMOS was considerably increased from 259 V to 1144 V, and Ron,sp decreased from 18.2 mΩ·cm2 to 6.03 mΩ·cm2 compared with Si VDMOS. In order to analyze the characteristics of the SiC/Si heterojunction structure deeply, the influence of the interface state characteristics of the SiC/Si heterojunction on the electrical parameters of VDMOS was analyzed, including electric field characteristics, blocking characteristics, output characteristics, and transfer characteristics. In addition, the influence of the interface state of the SiC/Si heterojunction on energy band characteristics was analyzed. The results showed that with an increase in the interfacial charge (acceptor) concentration, the p-type trap layer was introduced into the interface of the SiC/Si heterojunction, energy increased slightly, and the barrier height difference at the heterojunction increased, resulting in an increase in BV. At the same time, since the barrier height became higher, electrons did not flow easily, so Ron,sp increased. On the contrary, when a charge (donor) was introduced at the interface of the SiC/Si heterojunction, the number of electrons in the channel increased, resulting in an increase in the electron current, which is conducive to the flow of electrons, resulting in a decrease in Ron,sp. The energy band and other characteristics of devices with temperature were simulated at different temperatures. Finally, the effects of SiC/Si heterojunction interface states on interface capacitances and switching performances of VDMOS devices were also discussed.

Insights into the Semiconductor SERS Activity: The Impact of the Defect-Induced Energy Band Offset and Electron Lifetime Change

The significant boost in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) by the chemical enhancement of semiconducting oxides is a pivotal finding. It offers a prospective path toward high uniformity and low-cost SERS substrates. However, a detailed understanding of factors that influence the charge transfer process is still insufficient. Herein, we reveal the important role of defect-induced band offset and electron lifetime change in SERS evolution observed in a MoO3 oxide semiconductor. By modulating the density of oxygen vacancy defects using ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation, SERS is found to be improved with irradiation time in the first place, but such improvement later deteriorates for prolonged irradiation even if more defects are generated. Insights into the observed SERS evolution are provided by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption spectroscopy measurements. Results reveal that (1) a suitable offset between the energy band of the substrate and the orbitals of molecules is facilitated by a certain defect density and (2) defect states with relatively long electron lifetime are essential to achieve optimal SERS performance.

Low-Temperature Processed Brookite Interfacial Modification for Perovskite Solar Cells with Improved Performance

The scaffold layer plays an important role in transporting electrons and preventing carrier recombination in mesoporous perovskite solar cells (PSCs), so the engineering of the interface between the scaffold layer and the light absorption layer has attracted widespread concern. In this work, vertically grown TiO₂ nanorods (NRs) as scaffold layers are fabricated and further treated with TiCl₄ aqueous solution. It can be found that a thin brookite TiO₂ nanoparticle (NP) layer is formed by the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method on the surface of every rutile NR with a low annealing temperature (150 °C), which is beneficial for the infiltration and growth of perovskite. The PSC based on the TiO₂ NR/brookite NP structure shows the best power conversion of 15.2%, which is 56.37% higher than that of the PSC based on bare NRs (9.72%). This complex structure presents an improved pore filling fraction and better carrier transport capability with less trap-assisted carrier recombination. In addition, low-annealing-temperature-formed brookite NPs possess a more suitable edge potential for electrons to transport from the perovskite layer to the electron collection layer when compared with high-annealing-temperature-formed anatase NPs. The brookite phase TiO₂ fabricated at a low temperature presents great potential for flexible PSCs.

First-Principles Study on the Effect of Strain on Single-Layer Molybdenum Disulfide

By adopting the first-principles plane wave pseudopotential method based on density functional theory, the electronic structure properties of single-layer MoS₂ (molybdenum disulfide) crystals under biaxial strain are studied. The calculation results in this paper show that when a small strain is applied to a single-layer MoS₂, its band structure changes from a direct band gap to an indirect band gap. As the strain increases, the energy band still maintains the characteristics of the indirect band gap, and the band gap shows a linear downward trend. Through further analysis of the density of states, sub-orbital density of states, thermodynamic parameters and Raman spectroscopy, it revealed the variation of single-layer MoS₂ with strain. This provides a theoretical basis for realizing the strain regulation of MoS₂.

Effects of ZnMgO Electron Transport Layer on the Performance of InP-Based Inverted Quantum Dot Light-Emitting Diodes

An environment-friendly inverted indium phosphide red quantum dot light-emitting diode (InP QLED) was fabricated using Mg-doped zinc oxide (ZnMgO) as the electron transport layer (ETL). The effects of ZnMgO ETL on the performance of InP QLED were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that ZnMgO film has an amorphous structure, which is similar to zinc oxide (ZnO) film. Comparison of morphology between ZnO film and ZnMgO film demonstrated that Mg-doped ZnO film remains a high-quality surface (root mean square roughness: 0.86 nm) as smooth as ZnO film. The optical band gap and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) analysis revealed that the conduction band of ZnO shifts to a more matched position with InP quantum dot after Mg-doping, resulting in the decrease in turn-on voltage from 2.51 to 2.32 V. In addition, the ratio of irradiation recombination of QLED increases from 7% to 25% using ZnMgO ETL, which can be attributed to reduction in trap state by introducing Mg ions into ZnO lattices. As a result, ZnMgO is a promising material to enhance the performance of inverted InP QLED. This work suggests that ZnMgO has the potential to improve the performance of QLED, which consists of the ITO/ETL/InP QDs/TCTA/MoO₃/Al, and Mg-doping strategy is an efficient route to directionally regulate ZnO conduction bands.

Schottky Barriers in Bilayer Phosphorene Transistors

It is unreliable to evaluate the Schottky barrier height (SBH) in monolayer (ML) 2D material field effect transistors (FETs) with strongly interacted electrode from the work function approximation (WFA) because of existence of the Fermi-level pinning. Here, we report the first systematical study of bilayer (BL) phosphorene FETs in contact with a series of metals with a wide work function range (Al, Ag, Cu, Au, Cr, Ti, Ni, and Pd) by using both ab initio electronic band calculations and quantum transport simulation (QTS). Different from only one type of Schottky barrier (SB) identified in the ML phosphorene FETs, two types of SBs are identified in BL phosphorene FETs: the vertical SB between the metallized and the intact phosphorene layer, whose height is determined from the energy band analysis (EBA); the lateral SB between the metallized and the channel BL phosphorene, whose height is determined from the QTS. The vertical SBHs show a better consistency with the lateral SBHs of the ML phosphorene FETs from the QTS compared than that of the popular WFA. Therefore, we develop a better and more general method than the WFA to estimate the lateral SBHs of ML semiconductor transistors with strongly interacted electrodes based on the EBA for its BL counterpart. In terms of the QTS, n-type lateral Schottky contacts are formed between BL phosphorene and Cr, Al, and Cu electrodes with electron SBH of 0.27, 0.31, and 0.32 eV, respectively, while p-type lateral Schottky contacts are formed between BL phosphorene and Pd, Ti, Ni, Ag, and Au electrodes with hole SBH of 0.11, 0.18, 0.19, 0.20, and 0.21 eV, respectively. The theoretical polarity and SBHs are in good agreement with available experiments. Our study provides an insight into the BL phosphorene-metal interfaces that are crucial for designing the BL phosphorene device.

Monoclinic Tungsten Oxide with {100} Facet Orientation and Tuned Electronic Band Structure for Enhanced Photocatalytic Oxidations

Exploring surface-exposed highly active crystal facets for photocatalytic oxidations is promising in utilizing monoclinic WO3 semiconductor. However, the previously reported highly active facets for monoclinic WO3 were mainly toward enhancing photocatalytic reductions. Here we report that the WO3 with {100} facet orientation and tuned surface electronic band structure can effectively enhance photocatalytic oxidation properties. The {100} faceted WO3 single crystals are synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method. The UV-visible diffuse reflectance, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy valence band spectra, and photoelectrochemical measurements suggest that the {100} faceted WO3 has a much higher energy level of valence band maximum compared with the normal WO3 crystals without preferred orientation of the crystal face. The density functional theory calculations reveal that the shift of O 2p and W 5d states in {100} face induce a unique band structure. In comparison with the normal WO3, the {100} faceted WO3 exhibits an O2 evolution rate about 5.1 times in water splitting, and also shows an acetone evolution rate of 4.2 times as well as CO2 evolution rate of 3.8 times in gaseous degradation of 2-propanol. This study demonstrates an efficient crystal face engineering route to tune the surface electronic band structure for enhanced photocatalytic oxidations.