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Efficient quantum dot infrared solar cells with enhanced low-energy photon conversion via optical engineering

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Abstract

Infrared (IR) solar cells are promising devices for improving the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of conventional solar cells by expanding the utilization region of the sunlight spectrum to near-infrared range. IR solar cells based on colloidal quantum dots (QDs) have attracted extensive attention due to the widely tunable absorption spectrum controlled by dot size and the unique solution processibility. However, the trade-off in QD solar cells between light absorption and photo-generated carrier collection has limited the further improvement of PCE. Here, we present high-performance PbS QD IR solar cells resulting from the combination of boosted light absorption and optimized carrier extraction. By constructing an optical resonance cavity, the light absorption is significantly enhanced in the range of 1,150–1,300 nm at a relatively thin photoactive layer. Meanwhile, the thin photoactive layer facilitates efficient carrier extraction. Consequently, the PbS QD IR solar cells exhibit a highly efficient photoelectric conversion in the IR region, resulting in a high IR PCE of 1.3% which is comparable to the highest value of solution-processed IR solar cells based on PbSe QDs. These results demonstrate that constructing an optical resonance cavity is a reasonable strategy for effective conversion of photons in the devices aiming at light in a relatively narrow wavelength range, such as IR solar cells and narrow band photodetectors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2021YFA0715502), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61974052, and 61904065), the Innovation Project of Optics Valley Laboratory (No. OVL2021BG009), the Fund from Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality (No. GJHZ20210705142540010), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WUT: 2022IVA055). The authors thank the Testing Center of HUST.

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  1. Sisi Liu and Ming-Yu Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Sisi Liu & Ming-Yu Li

  2. School of Optical and Electronic Information, Wuhan National Laboratory/or Optoelectronics (WNLO), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, 430074, China

    Kao Xiong, Xinzheng Lan, Daoli Zhang, Liang Gao, Jianbing Zhang & Jiang Tang

  3. Department of Chemistry, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada

    Jianbo Gao

  4. Wenzhou Advanced Manufacturing Technology Research Institute, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Jianbing Zhang

  5. Shenzhen Huazhong University of Science and Technology Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518057, China

    Jianbing Zhang

  6. Optics Valley Laboratory, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Jiang Tang

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  1. Sisi Liu
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Correspondence to Liang Gao or Jianbing Zhang.

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Liu, S., Li, MY., Xiong, K. et al. Efficient quantum dot infrared solar cells with enhanced low-energy photon conversion via optical engineering. Nano Res. 16, 2392–2398 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4906-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4906-1

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