Electrodeposited PEDOT:PSS-AlO Improves the Steady-State Efficiency of Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells.

The atomic layer deposition (ALD) of AlO between perovskite and the hole transporting material (HTM) PEDOT:PSS has previously been shown to improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells. However, the costs associated with this technique make it unaffordable. In this work, the deposition of an organic-inorganic PEDOT:PSS-Cl-AlO bilayer is performed by a simple electrochemical technique with a final annealing step, and the performance of this material as HTM in inverted perovskite solar cells is studied.

Quantum tunneling theory of Cooper pairs as bosonic particles.

We propose a simple phenomenological theory for quantum tunneling of Cooper pairs, in superconductor/insulator/superconductor tunnel junctions, for a regime where the system can be modeled as bosonic particles. Indeed, provided there is an absence of quasiparticle excitations (fermions), our model reveals a rapid increase in tunneling current, around zero bias voltage, which rapidly saturates. This manifests as a zero bias conductance peak that strongly depends on the superconductors temperature in a non-monotonic way.

Rational Design of Photo-Electrochemical Hybrid Devices Based on Graphene and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Light-Harvesting Proteins.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been highlighted as the promising alternative to generate clean energy based on low pay-back time materials. These devices have been designed to mimic solar energy conversion processes from photosynthetic organisms (the most efficient energy transduction phenomenon observed in nature) with the aid of low-cost materials. Recently, light-harvesting complexes (LHC) have been proposed as potential dyes in DSSCs based on their higher light-absorption efficiencies as compared to synthetic dyes.

Coercive field enhancement in Co nanodisks: single-domain to vortex switching.

Magnetic multi-layered nanodisks (ND) show great promise as these are relatively easy to assemble and control, facilitating biological and storage applications. In the present work, Ti/Co/Nb ND were fabricated with a varying Co layer thickness between 6 and 14 nm. Using vibrating sample magnetometry and micromagnetic simulations (OOMMF), their magnetic properties were investigated.

Enhancement of the transversal magnetic optic Kerr effect: Lock-in vs. hysteresis method.

The lock-in amplifier is often used to study the enhancement of the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) in the presence of plasmon resonances. In the present work we show that it is possible to investigate such effect replacing the lock-in amplifier by a compensator, filter, and differential amplifier. This allows us to extract the full hysteresis loop in and out of the resonance without the need of a lock-in amplifier.