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The Efficiency Reaches a Plateau in Inverted Schottky Quantum Dot Solar Cells

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Advances in Engineering Research and Application (ICERA 2018)

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Abstract

Schottky lead sulfide (PbS) quantum dot (QD) solar cells (SCs) have the advantage of simple device fabrication while pn heterojunction SCs benefit from efficient carrier extraction induced by a front depletion region. Herein, we used low-work function transparent conducting oxide (L-TCO) to create a front contact with p-type PbS QD layer. The configuration, denoted as inverted Schottky, combines the mentioned advantages of Schottky and pn structures. A series of inverted Schottky cells having a structure of L-TCO/p-PbS QDs/MoOx/Au-Ag and normal Schottky cells with a structure of ITO/p-PbS QD/Li-Al were fabricated for comparison. Current - voltage measurements showed that as the thickness of p-PbS QD layer increased the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of normal cells maximized at 160 nm while PCE of inverted cells reached a plateau. The observed plateau in inverted Schottky cells can reduce the technical difficulty in maintaining the thickness of PbS QD layer.

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Acknowledgement

This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number 103.99-2016.32

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Correspondence to Xuan-Dung Mai .

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Mai, V.T., Duong, N.H., Mai, XD. (2019). The Efficiency Reaches a Plateau in Inverted Schottky Quantum Dot Solar Cells. In: Fujita, H., Nguyen, D., Vu, N., Banh, T., Puta, H. (eds) Advances in Engineering Research and Application. ICERA 2018. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 63. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04792-4_73

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04792-4_73

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04792-4

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