Related papers: Electrically Benign Defect Behavior in Zinc Tin Ni…
ZnSnN2 is an Earth-abundant analog to the III-Nitrides with potential as a solar absorber due to its direct bandgap, steep absorption onset, and disorder-driven bandgap tunability. Despite these desirable properties, discrepancies in the…
ZnSnN2 has recently garnered increasing interest as a potential solar absorber material due to its direct bandgap that is predicted to be tunable from 1.0-2.1 eV based on cation disorder. One important challenge to the further development…
Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) has had a long history of scientific interest largely because of its potential for earth-abundant photovoltaics. To realize high-efficiency Zn3P2 solar cells, it is critical to understand and control point defects in…
Zinc Oxide (ZnO) semiconductor is ideal candidates for ultra-violet (UV) photodetector due to its promising optoelectronic properties. Photodetectors based on ZnO nanostructures show very high photoconductivity under UV light, but they are…
Thin-film photovoltaics offers a path to significantly decarbonize our energy production. Unfortunately, current materials commercialized or under development as thin-film solar cell absorbers are far from optimal as they show either low…
Ternary nitride ZnSnN$_2$ is a promising photovoltaic absorber material. In this work, using first-principles calculations, we investigate the stability and electronic properties of "4-8"-type ZnSnN$_2$ thin films. We find that below a…
Implementation of an optically active material on silicon has been a persistent technological challenge. For tandem photovoltaics using a Si bottom cell, as well as for other optoelectronic applications, there has been a longstanding need…
The development of tandem photovoltaics and photoelectrochemical solar cells requires new absorber materials with band gaps in the range of ~1.5-2.3 eV, for use in the top cell paired with a narrower-gap bottom cell. An outstanding…
Zinc sulfide (ZnS) based materials are widely used in many applications. Yet, due to a lack of detailed knowledge of defect energy levels, the electrical properties and luminescence mechanisms in the materials still give rise to debate.…
Zinc Phosphide ($Zn_3P_2$) could be the basis for cheap and highly efficient solar cells. Its use in this regard is limited by the difficulty in n-type doping the material. In an effort to understand the mechanism behind this, the…
Tin Sulphide is a layered compound which retains its structure when deposited as thin films by thermal evaporation. The films were found to have oriented growth with the direction of orientation changing with film thickness. The film's…
The Cu$_2$BaSnS$_4$ (CBTS) and Cu$_2$SrSnS$_4$ (CSTS) semiconductors have been recently proposed as potential wide band gap photovoltaic absorbers. Although several measurements indicate that they are less affected by band tailing than…
This study investigates the ground-state energetics and thermodynamics of intrinsic point defects in zinc phosphide Zn$_3$P$_2$ using \emph{ab initio} density functional theory combined with an extensive potential energy landscape search.…
An ultrabroad absorber based on double-ring-shaped titanium nitride (TiN) nanoresonators, which can work in high temperatures, is proposed and numerically studied. The absorber with some optimal parameters exhibits an averaged absorption of…
Titanium nitride (TiN) shows low resistivity at room temperature, high thermal stability and thus has the potential to serve as seed layer in magnetic tunnel junctions. High quality TiN thin films with regard to the crystallographic and…
Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a promising photovoltaic absorber material with earth abundant and nontoxic elements. However, the detrimental native defects and secondary phases of CSTS will largely reduce the energy conversion efficiencies. To…
Sulfide chalcopyrite, Cu(In,Ga)S2, having wide bandgap (larger than 1.5 eV), favorable optoelectronic properties, and high stability, is a promising top-cell absorber for tandem applications. Adapting device structures optimized for 1.0 -…
Tin monosulfide (SnS) usually exhibits p-type conduction due to the low formation enthalpy of acceptor-type defects, and as a result n-type SnS thin films have never been obtained. This study realizes n-type conduction in SnS thin films for…
Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) is a promising candidate as an absorber material for thin film solar cells. The reported wet chemical synthesis approaches often have a high environmental impact due to the usage of abrasive solvents such as hydrazines,…
With the rise of AI-assisted materials screening, extraordinary properties are now frequently predicted in experimentally uncharted material systems, highlighting the need to develop new synthesis methods for unconventional materials beyond…