Quantum confinement in the spectral response of n-doped germanium quantum dots embedded in an amorphous Si layer for quantum dot-based solar cells
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2020
Citazione:
Quantum confinement in the spectral response of n-doped germanium quantum dots embedded in an amorphous Si layer for quantum dot-based solar cells / J. Parravicini, F. Di Trapani, M.D. Nelson, Z.T. Rex, R.D. Beiter, T. Catelani, M.F. Acciarri, A. Podesta, C. Lenardi, S.O. Binetti, M. Di Vece. - In: ACS APPLIED NANO MATERIALS. - ISSN 2574-0970. - 3:3(2020), pp. 2813-2821. [10.1021/acsanm.0c00125]
Abstract:
Quantum dot solar cells are based on the concept of harvesting different parts of the solar light spectrum with a single, cheap semiconductor by simply changing the size of the nanoparticles. Of the many compositions explored, germanium is one of the most interesting as it has the major advantage of a large Bohr radius, which allows for the fabrication of larger particles. Moreover, germaniums possess very high optical absorption, and a small band gap give it free parameters to optimize the quantum dot solar cell. In a previous work, the germanium quantum dots were used in a Gratzel type solar cell containing an electrolyte, which is not desirable for applications. In this work instead, the n-doped germanium quantum dots were combined with a p-doped a-Si layer, making it the first all solid-state solar cell made from nanoparticles from a gas aggregation nanoparticle source. Remarkably, the effect of quantum confinement in both the germanium quantum dot assembled layer and a-Si was observed by peaks in the spectral response experiments. This work forms an important step toward realizing a germanium quantum dot based solar cell and studying quantum dot based solids.
Tipologia IRIS:
01 - Articolo su periodico
Keywords:
A-Si; Atomic force microscopy; Germanium; Quantum confinement; Quantum dot; Solar cell; Spectral response; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Elenco autori:
J. Parravicini, F. Di Trapani, M.D. Nelson, Z.T. Rex, R.D. Beiter, T. Catelani, M.F. Acciarri, A. Podesta, C. Lenardi, S.O. Binetti, M. Di Vece
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