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New materials and structures for photovoltaics

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Abstract

Despite the fact that over the years crystal chemists have discovered numerous semiconducting substances, and that modern epitaxial growth techniques are able to produce many novel atomic-scale architectures, current electronic and opto-electronic technologies are based but on a handful of ∼10 traditional semiconductor core materials. This paper surveys a number of yet-unexploited classes of semiconductors, pointing to the much-needed research in screening, growing, and characterizing promising members of these classes. In light of the unmanageably large number of a-priori possibilities, we emphasize the role that structural chemistry and modern computer-aided design must play in screening potentially important candidates. The basic classes of materials discussed here include nontraditional alloys, such as non-isovalent and heterostructural semiconductors, materials at reduced dimensionality, including superlattices, zeolite-caged nanostructures and organic semiconductors, spontaneously ordered alloys, interstitial semiconductors, filled tetrahedral structures, ordered vacancy compounds, and compounds based on d and f electron elements. A collaborative effort among material predictor, material grower, and material characterizer holds the promise for a successful identification of new and exciting systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 84001, Golden, CO

    Alex Zunger

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, 08544, Princeton, NJ

    S. Wagner

  3. Materials Department, University of California, 93106, Santa Barbara, CA

    P. M. Petroff

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  1. Alex Zunger
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  2. S. Wagner
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Zunger, A., Wagner, S. & Petroff, P.M. New materials and structures for photovoltaics. J. Electron. Mater. 22, 3–16 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02665719

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