Search results for "Photovoltaic Effect"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
Direct assessment of p–n junctions in single GaN nanowires by Kelvin probe force microscopy
2016
Making use of Kelvin probe force microscopy, in dark and under ultraviolet illumination, we study the characteristics of p-n junctions formed along the axis of self-organized GaN nanowires (NWs). We map the contact potential difference of the single NW p-n junctions to locate the space charge region and directly measure the depletion width and the junction voltage. Simulations indicate a shrinkage of the built-in potential for NWs with small diameter due to surface band bending, in qualitative agreement with the measurements. The photovoltage of the NW/substrate contact is studied by analysing the response of NW segments with p- and n-type doping under illumination. Our results show that th…
Wide range local resistance imaging on fragile materials by conducting probe atomic force microscopy in intermittent contact mode
2016
International audience; An imaging technique associating a slowly intermittent contact mode of atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a home-made multi-purpose resistance sensing device is presented. It aims at extending the widespread resistance measurements classically operated in contact mode AFM to broaden their application fields to soft materials (molecular electronics, biology) and fragile or weakly anchored nano-objects, for which nanoscale electrical characterization is highly demanded and often proves to be a challenging task in contact mode. Compared with the state of the art concerning less aggressive solutions for AFM electrical imaging, our technique brings a significantly wider r…
Photoconductivity and photovoltaic effect in indium selenide
1983
Transport and phototransport properties of crystalline indium monoselenide (InSe) doped with a variety of elements are reported. Measured mobilities, lifetimes, and effective diffusion lengths of photoexcited carriers are used to interpret electrical and photovoltaic properties of several different structures. These include p‐n junctions, bismuth/p‐type InSe, platinum/n‐type InSe, and indium tin oxyde (ITO)/p‐type InSe. External solar efficiencies of the best devices are between 5% and 6%. The influence on the efficiency of the various parameters is evaluated, and ways of improvement are discussed.
Polarization backward-wave four-wave mixing in BaTiO_3:Fe using the photovoltaic effect
1997
We report the first study to our knowledge of polarization backward-wave four-wave mixing in a BaTiO3:Fe crystal and compare the results of our measurements with the calculations performed within the model of photovoltaic charge transport. Two identically polarized pump waves and one orthogonally polarized signal wave are sent to a sample in a plane normal to the crystal’s C axis; a phase-conjugate wave with polarization identical to that of the signal wave is generated. With a 2-mm-thick sample a phase-conjugate reflectivity Rpc≈0.01 is reached; for a 1-cm-thick sample, amplified reflection should be possible.
Light absorption and conversion in solar cell based on Si:O alloy
2013
Thin film Si:O alloys have been grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, as intrinsic or highly doped (1 to 5 at. % of B or P dopant) layers. UV-visible/near-infrared spectroscopy revealed a great dependence of the absorption coefficient and of the optical gap (Eg) on the dopant type and concentration, as Eg decreases from 2.1 to 1.9 eV, for the intrinsic or highly p-doped sample, respectively. Thermal annealing up to 400 °C induces a huge H out-diffusion which causes a dramatic absorption increase and a reduction of Eg, down to less than 1.8 eV. A prototypal solar cell has been fabricated using a 400 nm thick, p-i-n structure made of Si:O alloy embedded within flat transparent c…
Electrical and photovoltaic properties of indium‐tin‐oxide/p‐InSe/Au solar cells
1987
Conditions for efficiency improvement and optimization in indium‐tin‐oxide/p‐indium‐selenide solar cells are discussed in this paper. This aim is achieved by using low‐resistivity p‐indium‐selenide and by incorporating a back‐surface‐field contact. This contact is insured by a p‐indium selenide/gold barrier whose rectifying behavior is explained through the complex impurity structure of p‐indium‐selenide. Electrical and photovoltaic properties of the cells are also reported. The efficiency parameters under AM1 simulated conditions have been improved up to 32 mA/cm2 for the short‐circuit current density, 0.58 V for the open‐circuit voltage, and 0.63 for the filling factor. As a result, solar…
Polymer solar cells with novel fullerene-based acceptor
2004
Abstract Alternative acceptor materials are possible candidates to improve the optical absorption and/or the open circuit voltage of polymer–fullerene solar cells. We studied a novel fullerene-type acceptor, DPM-12, for application in polymer–fullerene bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices. Though DPM-12 has the identical redox potentials as methanofullerene PCBM, surprisingly high open circuit voltages in the range V OC =0.95 V were measured for OC 1 C 10 -PPV:DPM-12-based samples. The potential for photovoltaic application was studied by means of photovoltaic characterization of solar cells including current–voltage measurements and external quantum yield spectroscopy. Further studies …
Phase conjugation in BaTiO 3 by use of the indirect photorefractive coupling of orthogonally polarized light waves
1998
A phase-conjugate wave is generated when an ordinary (extraordinary) signal wave is mixed with two counterpropagating extraordinary (ordinary) waves in the plane normal to the BaTiO3 polar axis. The photorefractive grating that couples the ordinary and the extraordinary waves appears if the incident waves induce a noticeable conical parametric scattering; this grating is a difference grating of many noisy scattering gratings recorded by means of the usual diffusion-mediated charge transport. For comparable intensities of signal and pump waves this type of nonlinear wave mixing is much more efficient than that which is due to the circular bulk photovoltaic effect.
Photovoltaic performance of amorphous silicon flexible solar modules under mechanical loading
2007
The applications of photovoltaic devices can be significantly expanded by directly integrating them into structures. Solar cells integrated into structures can help to power a variety of devices such as structural monitoring sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, little work has been reported in the literature on the performance of solar cells under deformation. Thus, a thorough investigation on the photovoltaic behavior of solar modules under mechanical loading is necessary in order to provide the optimal integration conditions for practical applications. The photovoltaic performance of commercially available amorphous silicon solar modules was tested under applied mechanica…
Theoretical efficiency limits for thermoradiative energy conversion
2015
Published version of an article in the journal: Journal of Applied Physics. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4907392 A new method to produce electricity from heat called thermoradiative energy conversion is analyzed. The method is based on sustaining a difference in the chemical potential for electron populations above and below an energy gap and let this difference drive a current through an electric circuit. The difference in chemical potential originates from an imbalance in the excitation and de-excitation of electrons across the energy gap. The method has similarities to thermophotovoltaics and conventional photovoltaics. While photovoltaic cells absorb…