A Relationship Between Semiconducting Thin Film's Electronic Structure Heterogeneity and Defect Tolerance.

Analyzing the defect states presence in semiconductors and understanding their impact on charge transport is essential to the solar cells' functionality. In recent years, there has been a focus on the concept of "defect tolerance" observed in perovskite solar cells. The energy-resolved electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (ER-EIS) is crucial for measuring the density distribution of defect states in the energy scale from valence to conductance band (or from HOMO to LUMO) and their spatial localization on a thin film.

Absolute energy levels in nanodiamonds of different origins and surface chemistries.

Nanodiamonds (NDs) are versatile, broadly available nanomaterials with a set of features highly attractive for applications from biology over energy harvesting to quantum technologies. synthesis and surface chemistry, NDs can be tuned from the sub-micron to the single-digit size, from conductive to insulating, from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, and from positively to negatively charged surface by simple annealing processes. Such ND diversity makes it difficult to understand and take advantage of their electronic properties.

A synergistic effect of the ion beam sputtered NiOhole transport layer and MXene doping on inverted perovskite solar cells.

The synergistic effect of high-quality NiOhole transport layers (HTLs) deposited by ion beam sputtering on ITO substrates and the TiCTMXene doping of CHNHPbI(MAPI) perovskite layers is investigated in order to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of p-i-n perovskite solar cells (PSCs). The 18 nm thick NiOlayers are pinhole-free and exhibit large-scale homogeneous surface morphology as revealed by the atomic force microscopy (AFM). The grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction showed a 0.

Thickness Dependence of Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of F8BT Thin Films.

Electronic devices based on polymer thin films have experienced a tremendous increase in their efficiency in the last two decades. One of the critical factors that affects the efficiency of polymer solar cells or light emitting devices is the presence of structural defects that controls non-radiative recombination. The purpose of this report is to demonstrate a non-trivial thickness dependence of optoelectronic properties and structure (dis)order in thin conductive poly(9,9-dioctyfluorene-alt-benzothiadiazole), F8BT, polymer films.

Selected Electrochemical Properties of 4,4'-((1E,1'E)-((1,2,4-Thiadiazole-3,5-diyl)bis(azaneylylidene))bis(methaneylylidene))bis(,-di-p-tolylaniline) towards Perovskite Solar Cells with 14.4% Efficiency.

Planar perovskite solar cells were fabricated on F-doped SnO (FTO) coated glass substrates, with 4,4'-((1E,1'E)-((1,2,4-thiadiazole-3,5-diyl)bis(azaneylylidene))bis(methaneylylidene))bis(,-di-p-tolylaniline) (bTAThDaz) as hole transport material. This imine was synthesized in one step reaction, starting from commercially available and relatively inexpensive reagents. Electrochemical, optical, electrical, thermal and structural studies including thermal images and current-voltage measurements of the full solar cell devices characterize the imine in details.

Kinetics of Polymer-Fullerene Phase Separation during Solvent Annealing Studied by Table-Top X-ray Scattering.

Solvent annealing is an efficient way of phase separation in polymer-fullerene blends to optimize bulk heterojunction morphology of active layer in polymer solar cells. To track the process in real time across all relevant stages of solvent evaporation, laboratory-based in situ small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements were applied simultaneously to a model P3HT:PCBM blend dissolved in dichlorobenzene. The PCBM molecule agglomeration starts at ∼7 wt % concentration of solid content of the blend in solvent.

Control of single-electron charging of metallic nanoparticles onto amorphous silicon surface.

Sequential single-electron charging of iron oxide nanoparticles encapsulated in oleic acid/oleyl amine envelope and deposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique onto Pt electrode covered with undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon film is reported. Single-electron charging (so-called quantized double-layer charging) of nanoparticles is detected by cyclic voltammetry as current peaks and the charging effect can be switched on/off by the electric field in the surface region induced by the excess of negative/positive charged defect states in the amorphous silicon layer. The particular charge states in amorphous silicon are created by the simultaneous application of a suitable bias voltage and illumination before the measurement.

Orientation ordering of nanoparticle Ag/Co cores controlled by electric and magnetic fields.

The effect of electric and magnetic fields on the sandwich structure Pt/hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H)/stearic acid monolayer/Langmuir-Blodgett film of Ag/Co nanoparticles encapsulated in an organic envelope is studied. This structure is used as a working electrode in an electrochemical cell filled with NaCl solution (1 mM) and equipped with an Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Reversible changes in voltammograms are observed due to treatments (negative or positive bias voltage and simultaneous laser irradiation) applied to the designed structure before measurements.