In this Letter, we report on a new nanofabrication technology to yield highly arrayed nanoelectrodes for organic–inorganic solar cells that promise new levels of performance and efficiency. This technology efficiently controls the effective area of highly arrayed nanoelectrodes and allows for the maximum incorporation of organic materials within the voids. Particularly the 3D parameters such as thickness, spacing, and height of the nanostructures are controlled non‐lithographically by atomic layer deposition technology.
A new method for fabricating carbon nanotube‐conducting polymer (CNT‐CP) composite single nanowires is reported. The method developed is highly efficient, reliable, and economical because it obviates the time consuming process of template fabrication and the post‐synthesis task of positioning nanowires. Single nanowires with diameters of 50‐500 nm are fabricated between electrodes, self‐templated by dielectrophoresis and electropolymerization. Fabrication of an individually addressed nanowire array with cantilever electrodes on a microchip is demonstrated.
We report the fabrication procedure and the characterization of an Al0.3Ga0.7As solar cell containing high‐density GaAs strain‐free quantum dots grown by droplet epitaxy. The production of photocurrent when two sub‐bandgap energy photons are absorbed simultaneously is demonstrated. The high quality of the quantum dot/barrier pair, allowed by the high quality of nanostructured strain‐free materials, opens new opportunities for quantum dot based solar cells.
High‐speed solution shearing, in which a drop of dissolved material is spread by a coating knife onto the substrate, has emerged as a versatile, yet simple coating technique to prepare high‐mobility organic thin film transistors. Solution shearing and subsequent drying and crystallization of a thin film of conjugated molecules is probed in situ using microbeam grazing incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering (μGIWAXS). We demonstrate the advantages of this approach to study solution based crystal nucleation and growth, and identify casting parameter combinations to cast highly ordered and laterally aligned molecular thin films.
We report on solution‐processible polymer solar cells (PSCs) fabricated on a papery substrate using carton. Highly conductive PEDOT:PSS was used as a bottom anode and planarization layer, and a semi‐transparent top cathode was applied. This research could be an important approach to the development of all‐solution‐processible papery PSCs as well as paper electronics.
Persistent layer‐by‐layer growth is demonstrated for pulsed‐laser homoepitaxy of ZnO thin films on $(000\bar 1)$ ZnO single crystals. Employing interval pulsed‐laser deposition (PLD), RHEED oscillations are stabilized over a film thickness of about 90 nm. For interval pulsed laser deposited films a considerably decreased root‐mean‐square surface roughness of 0.26 nm was found, in comparison to 0.74 nm for conventional PLD. A small asymmetry in the X‐ray diffraction (XRD) 2θ –ω scan reveals compressive strain in the thin film being slightly larger for interval PLD as compared to conventional PLD. The FWHM of the photoluminescence (PL) I6 line is higher with about 500 µeV as compared to 350 µeV for the conventional PLD. Consequently, both XRD as well as PL indicate a slightly higher amount of charged defects for the interval PLD.
We demonstrated important changes produced on the modulation frequency of hybrid organic–inorganic light‐emitting diodes to examine the applicability as a light source for visible optical communications. The fabricated device structure was 4,4′‐bis[N ‐(1‐napthyl)‐N ‐phenyl‐amino]biphenyl/4,4′‐(bis(9‐ethyl‐3‐carbazovinylene)‐1,1′‐biphenyl:4,4′‐bis[9‐dicarbazolyl]‐2,2′‐biphenyl/ZnS/LiF/MgAg. This device showed an improvement in the modulation frequency using ZnS instead of an organic material, tris(8‐hydroxyquinoline)aluminum. A maximum cutoff frequency of 20.6 MHz was achieved.
Rapid quantification of structural defects, especially dislocations, is desired for characterization of semiconductor materials. Herein, we outline and validate a low‐cost approach for dislocation‐density quantification in silicon, involving a high‐resolution commercial dark‐field imaging device, a flatbed scanner. This method requires minimal surface preparation and can be performed on as‐cut 15.6 × 15.6 cm2wafers in less than 5 minutes. The method has been tested at a spatial resolution down to 250 µm. At 1 mm resolution, the average root mean square of the normalized error was 0.39.
Nanostructures formed in a titanium dioxide (TiO2)–poly(styrene)‐block‐poly(ethyleneoxide) nanocomposite film on top of fluor‐doped tin oxide (FTO) layers are investigated. The combinatorial approach is based on probing a wedge‐shaped FTO‐gradient with grazing incidence small angle X‐ray scattering (GISAXS) in combination with a moderate micro‐focus X‐ray beam. The characteristic lateral length is given by adjacent nanowire‐shaped TiO2 regions. It decreases from 200 nm on the thick FTO layer to 90 nm on the bare glass surface.
The growth, structural and optical characterisation of dilute nitride alloys of InSb grown by plasma‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy is presented. The layers were characterised by high‐resolution X‐ray diffraction indicating high crystalline quality and nitrogen incorporations up to 0.68%. Fourier‐transform infrared absorption measurements reveal the position of the absorption edge to be a result of the competing effects of bandgap reduction (due to nitrogen incorporation and bandgap renormalisation) and Moss–Burstein band filling.
In the present work we use a series of Ti–Ru alloys, with minor amounts of Ru (0.01, 0.02, 0.05 and 0.2 at%) to grow anodic self‐organized Ru‐doped TiO2 nanotube layers. When used in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), the nanotube layers with an optimum amount of Ru (0.02 at% Ru in the alloy) show a considerable increase in solar cell efficiency (η = 5.2%) under AM1.5 (100 mW/cm2) conditions compared with non‐doped TiO2 nanotubes (η = 4.3%).
Write‐once–read‐many‐times memory (WORM) devices were fabricated using Ti/Au and Au as top contacts on ZnO thin films on Si. Electrical characterization shows that both types of WORM devices have large resistance OFF/ON ratio (R ratio), small resistance distribution range, long retention and good endurance. WORM devices with Au top contact have better performance of higher R ratio because of a larger work function of Au compared to Ti.
Interaction between negatively charged Nafion® and a positively charged polybenzimidazole‐decorated carbon nanotube leads to the formation of an ionic complex with high charge density for proton conduction, which can lead to an improvement in transport properties. Here we investigate the high‐temperature and low‐humidity proton conductivity of this nanocomposite membrane as a potential membrane for fuel cell applications.
We have fabricated multi‐peak and chromaticity‐stable top‐emitting white organic light‐emitting diodes (TEWOLEDs) using single blue emitter. Besides the intrinsic emission of blue emitter, the additional emission can be well realized by simply adjusting the thickness of hole transporting layer (HTL), thus modifying the optical cavity length to obtain different resonant wavelengths. The detailed variation process for multi‐peak spectra with the increase of HTL thickness is studied, which provides a guidance for the design of microcavity TEWOLEDs.
The properties of transition‐metal (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) δ‐doped ZnO are reported based on ab‐initio electronic structure calculations where the on‐site electronic correlations are included using the Hubbard parameters. The calculated electronic and magnetic properties are considerably altered with respect to usual band‐structure calculations. Most of the studied systems are found to be either half‐metals or ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic semiconductors and thus can be employed in a variety of spintronic applications as spin‐filter materials.
In this Letter, a novel modified anodization was utilized to synthesize high‐aspect‐ratio, top‐open and ultraflat‐surface TiO2 nanotubes. The interruption of voltage during anodization leads to the formation of a double‐layered structure. Due to the weak mechanical connection between the upper and the underlying layer, the two parts can be easily detached. Compared with the conventional ultrasonication method to remove the clusters of nanotubes where rough surfaces resulted, this efficient and reliable strategy may facilitate further applications of TiO2 nanotubes in diverse conditions.
We present a design study of 3D photonic poly‐Si microarchitectures on 2 µm periodically textured glass substrates for application as absorber layers in crystalline Si thin‐film solar cells. Different arrays of microholes and microcones were fabricated in a low‐cost process, by combining high rate electron beam evaporation, nanoimprint technology and self‐organized solid phase crystallization. Two promising designs exhibiting strong absorption enhancement were identified by optical analysis. High angular acceptance and calculated maximum achievable short‐circuit current density of 27.6 mA/cm2 for an effective Si thickness of 1.1 µm highlight the optical potential of these microarchitectures as broadband absorbers in polycrystalline Si thin‐film solar cells.
