Controlling the Optical and Electrical Properties of Perovskite Films and Enhancing Solar Cell Performance Using the Photonic Curing Process.

The most common method of processing metal oxide and perovskite thin films in the laboratory is thermal annealing (TA), which is a constraint for the commercialization of large-scale perovskite solar cells. Here, we present a photonic curing (PC) process to produce fully photonically annealed perovskite cells-a fast process with well-controlled, short light pulses-to develop perovskite photovoltaic devices with high efficiency. We also demonstrate how to use the parameters of the photonic annealing system to control the optical, electrical, morphological, and structural properties of perovskite layers for photovoltaic device applications.

Continuous Critical Respiratory Parameter Measurements Using a Single Low-Cost Relative Humidity Sensor: Evaluation Study.

Background: Accurate and portable respiratory parameter measurements are critical for properly managing chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPDs) such as asthma or sleep apnea, as well as controlling ventilation for patients in intensive care units, during surgical procedures, or when using a positive airway pressure device for sleep apnea.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to develop a new nonprescription portable measurement device that utilizes relative humidity sensors (RHS) to accurately measure key respiratory parameters at a cost that is approximately 10 times less than the industry standard.

Methods: We present the development, implementation, and assessment of a wearable respiratory measurement device using the commercial Bosch BME280 RHS.

Photonic post-processing of a multi-material transparent conductive electrode architecture for optoelectronic device integration.

Emerging flexible optoelectronic devices require multi-material processing capabilities to fully enable the use of temperature-sensitive substrates and materials. This report demonstrates how photonic sintering enables the processing of materials with very different properties. For example, charge carrier transport/blocking metal-oxides, and transparent conductive silver nanowire-based electrodes ought to be compatible with low-energy and high-throughput processing for integration onto flexible low-temperature substrates.

Synthesis of vacancy-rich titania particles suitable for the additive manufacturing of ceramics.

In the last decades, titania (or TiO) particles played a crucial role in the development of photo-catalysis and better environmentally-friendly energy-harvesting techniques. In this work, we engineer a new generation of TiO particles rich in oxygen vacancies using a modified sol-gel synthesis. By design, these vacancy-rich particles efficiently absorb visible light to allow carefully-controlled light-induced conversion to the anatase or rutile crystalline phases.

High-performance silver nanowires transparent conductive electrodes fabricated using manufacturing-ready high-speed photonic sinterization solutions.

On the long road towards low-cost flexible hybrid electronics, integration and printable solar energy harvesting solutions, there is an urgent need for high-performance transparent conductive electrodes produced using manufacturing-ready techniques and equipment. In recent years, randomly-distributed metallic nanowire-based transparent mesh electrodes have proven highly-promising as they offer a superb compromise between high performances and low fabrication costs. Unfortunately, these high figure-of-merit transparent mesh electrodes usually rely heavily on extensive post-deposition processing.