High-efficiency ferroelectric-film solar cells with an n-type Cu₂O cathode buffer layer

Nano Letters
Dawei CaoMingrong Shen

Abstract

Because of the existence of interface Schottky barriers and depolarization electric field, ferroelectric films sandwiched between top and bottom electrodes are strongly expected to be used as a new kind of solar cells. However, the photocurrent with a typical order of μA/cm(2) is too low to be practical. Here we demonstrate that the insertion of an n-type cuprous oxide (Cu(2)O) layer between the Pb(Zr,Ti)O(3) (PZT) film and the cathode Pt contact in a ITO/PZT/Pt cell leads to the short-circuit photocurrent increasing 120-fold to 4.80 mA/cm(2) and power conversion efficiency increasing of 72-fold to 0.57% under AM1.5G (100 mW/cm(2)) illumination. Ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy and dark J-V characteristic show an ohmic contact on Pt/Cu(2)O, an n(+)-n heterojunction on Cu(2)O/PZT and a Schottky barrier on PZT/ITO, which provide a favorable energy level alignment for efficient electron-extraction on the cathode. Our work opens up a promising new method that has the potential for fulfilling cost-effective ferroelectric-film photovoltaic.

References

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Citations

Jan 23, 2016·Nature Communications·Fenggong WangAndrew M Rappe
May 30, 2015·Nature Communications·Aurelien M A LeguyPiers R F Barnes
Dec 3, 2014·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Ying YangLiejin Guo
Feb 1, 2020·Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics : PCCP·Chuanqing LiJunhao Chu
Jul 30, 2020·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·Naseem Ud DinVolodymyr Turkowski
Apr 21, 2016·Nanotechnology·Joyprokash ChakrabarttyFederico Rosei
Mar 29, 2013·Chemical Communications : Chem Comm·Chunyan WangMingrong Shen
Jun 13, 2018·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Donghoon KimDonghun Kim
May 30, 2019·Frontiers in Chemistry·Vineet KumarGufeng Wang
Sep 22, 2020·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·Ozgur PolatAbdulmecit Turut
Oct 28, 2020·Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal·O PolatA Turut
May 15, 2021·Physical Review Letters·Sa ZhangLiang Qiao
Jun 19, 2021·Nature Nanotechnology·Jie JiangJian Shi
Dec 19, 2017·ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces·Hyeon HanHyun Myung Jang

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