Photovoltaic Materials and Electronic Devices

Given the state-of-the-art in solar photovoltaic (PV) technology and favorable financing terms, it is clear that PV has already obtained grid parity in specific locations [1]. Advances in the next generation of photovoltaic materials and photovoltaic devices can further reduce costs to enable all of humanity to utilize sustainable and renewable solar power [2]. This Special Issue of Materials will cover such materials, including modeling, synthesis, and evaluation of new materials and their solar cells. Specifically, this Special Issue will focus on five material technologies for advanced solar cells: 1. New Concepts in PV Materials: Nanostructured materials, low-dimensional physics, multiple charge generation, up/down converters, thermophotovoltaics, low-cost III-V materials, bandgap engineering, hot-carrier effects, plasmonics, metamorphic materials, perovskite and related novel PV materials, novel light trapping, rectennas, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, and graphene composites. 2. Organic PV Materials: Polymer, hybrid and dye sensitized solar cells, high performance contacts, and lifetime degradation and mechanisms. 3. Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Materials: Recent developments in dyes, working electrodes, technologies for device fabrications, and advances in new electrolytes. 4. Amorphous, Nanostructured, and Thin Film Silicon PV Materials: Microstructure characterization, light induced degradation (SWE), large area and high deposition rates, novel processing routes, light trapping, multi-layers, and multi-junction devices. 5. Passive Materials for all PV: Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs), encapsulation, connections, optics, glass, anti-reflection coatings (ARCs), alternative buffer layer materials, and contacts

Annual Report 2013 - Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research

The year 2013 was the third year of HZDR as a member of the Helmholtz Association (HGF), and we have made progress of integrating ourselves into this research environment of national Research centers. In particular, we were preparing for the evaluation in the framework of the so-called program oriented funding (POF), which will hopefully provide us with a stable funding for the next five years (2015 – 2019). In particular, last fall we have submitted a large proposal in collaboration with several other research centers. The actual evaluation will take place this spring. Most of our activities are assigned to the program “From Matter to Materials and Life” (within the research area “Matter”). A large fraction of this program is related to the operation of large-scale research infrastructures (or user facilities), one of which is our Ion Beam Center (IBC). The second large part of our research is labelled “in-house research”, reflecting the work driven through our researchers without external users, but still mostly utilizing our large-scale facilities such as the IBC, and, to a lesser extent, the free-electron laser. Our in-house research is performed in three so-called research themes, as depicted in the schematic below. What is missing there for simplicity is a small part of our activities in the program “Nuclear Waste Management and Safety” (within the research area “Energy”)

Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research: Annual Report 2002

Summary of the scientific activities of the institute in 2002 including selected highlight reports, short research contributions and an extended statistics overview

Fabrication and characterization of graphene nanodevices

[ES]In this Thesis our results on the fabrication of graphene nanodevices and their magnetotransport properties will be shown. In particular, we have fabricated several graphene nanodevices exploring the routes to field effec transistors using different approaches and fundamental physics research using Hall bars, Corbino rings and more exotic geometries. We have studied the quantum Hall effct in several graphene nanodevices: bilayer graphene and trilayer graphene, studying the transport regimes when unwanted charged dopants are present in the device. We extended our studies on the quantum Hall effect and characterized the plateauplateau quantum phase transition in a high mobility bilayer graphene device. Our results on the quantum phase transitions showed to be compatible with a percolation scenario in which the critical exponent of such transition is y=4/3. We have also studied the low field regime in a monolayer graphene device and a bilayer graphene device. For the monolayer graphene device, the trigonal warping is manifested in the destruction of the weak antilocalization. The bilayer graphene sample showed different transport regimes (from insulator like to metallic like) driven by the density. Furthermore, a change in the temperature resulted in ballistic transport for higher densities. Finally, the interplay between the graphene surface and a thin film of tantalum has been studied. We have observed a clear difference between the charge transfer from 3D porous carbon and tantalum and that from 3D porous graphene and tantalum, manifested in a modification of the superconducting properties of thin films of tantalum

Annual Report 2009 - Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research

The Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research (IIM) is one of the six institutes of the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (FZD), and contributes the largest part to its Research Program \"Advanced Materials\", mainly in the fields of semiconductor physics and materials research using ion beams. The institute operates a national and international Ion Beam Center, which, in addition to its own scientific activities, makes available fast ion technologies to universities, other research institutes, and industry. Parts of its activities are also dedicated to exploit the infrared/THz free-electron laser at the 40 MeV superconducting electron accelerator ELBE for condensed matter research. For both facilities the institute holds EU grants for funding access of external users