2,010 research outputs found
Micro-optical Tandem Luminescent Solar Concentrators
Traditional concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems utilize multijunction
cells to minimize thermalization losses, but cannot efficiently capture diffuse
sunlight, which contributes to a high levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and
limits their use to geographical regions with high direct sunlight insolation.
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) harness light generated by luminophores
embedded in a light-trapping waveguide to concentrate light onto smaller cells.
LSCs can absorb both direct and diffuse sunlight, and thus can operate as flat
plate receivers at a fixed tilt and with a conventional module form factor.
However, current LSCs experience significant power loss through parasitic
luminophore absorption and incomplete light trapping by the optical waveguide.
Here we introduce a tandem LSC device architecture that overcomes both of these
limitations, consisting of a PLMA polymer layer with embedded CdSe/CdS quantum
dot (QD) luminophores and InGaP micro-cells, which serve as a high bandgap
absorber on top of a conventional Si photovoltaic. We experimentally synthesize
CdSe/CdS QDs with exceptionally high quantum-yield (99%) and ultra-narrowband
emission optimally matched to fabricated III-V InGaP micro-cells. Using a Monte
Carlo ray-tracing model, we show the radiative limit power conversion
efficiency for a module with these components to be 30.8% diffuse sunlight
conditions. These results indicate that a tandem LSC-on-Si architecture could
significantly improve upon the efficiency of a conventional Si photovoltaic
module with simple and straightforward alterations of the module lamination
steps of a Si photovoltaic manufacturing process, with promise for widespread
module deployment across diverse geographical regions and energy markets
Design of Nanostructured Solar Cells Using Coupled Optical and Electrical Modeling
Nanostructured light trapping has emerged as a promising route toward improved efficiency in solar cells. We use coupled optical and electrical modeling to guide optimization of such nanostructures. We study thin-film n-i-p a-Si:H devices and demonstrate that nanostructures can be tailored to minimize absorption in the doped a-Si:H, improving carrier collection efficiency. This suggests a method for device optimization in which optical design not only maximizes absorption, but also ensures resulting carriers are efficiently collected
Size dependent tunneling and optical spectroscopy of CdSe quantum rods
Photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy
are used to study the electronic states in CdSe quantum rods that manifest a
transition from a zero dimensional to a one dimensional quantum confined
structure. Both optical and tunneling spectra show that the level structure
depends primarily on the rod diameter and not on length. With increasing
diameter, the band-gap and the excited state level spacings shift to the red.
The level structure was assigned using a multi-band effective-mass model,
showing a similar dependence on rod dimensions.Comment: Accepted to PRL (nearly final version). 4 pages in revtex, 4 figure
An accurate description of quantum size effects in InP nanocrystallites over a wide range of sizes
We obtain an effective parametrization of the bulk electronic structure of
InP within the Tight Binding scheme. Using these parameters, we calculate the
electronic structure of InP clusters with the size ranging upto 7.5 nm. The
calculated variations in the electronic structure as a function of the cluster
size is found to be in excellent agreement with experimental results over the
entire range of sizes, establishing the effectiveness and transferability of
the obtained parameter strengths.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, pdf file available at
http://sscu.iisc.ernet.in/~sampan/publications.htm
Adsorption of 2,2 '-dithiodipyridine as a tool for the assembly of silver nanoparticles
Silver nanostructured thin films stabilized by 2,2’-dithiodipyridine (2dtpy) were prepared. The Ag nanoparticles
were obtained by treating the complex [Ag(2dtpy)]NO3 with NaBH4 in a methanol–toluene mixture. The films
were transferred to borosilicate glass slips by a dip-coating method and were found to consist of Ag
nanoparticles possibly linked via 2dtpy molecules. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) studies have
offered the possibility of investigating the adsorption modes of 2dtpy at the Ag nanoparticle surfaces in the
fil
Self-directed growth of AlGaAs core-shell nanowires for visible light applications
Al(0.37)Ga(0.63)As nanowires (NWs) were grown in a molecular beam epitaxy
system on GaAs(111)B substrates. Micro-photoluminescence measurements and
energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicated a core-shell structure and Al
composition gradient along the NW axis, producing a potential minimum for
carrier confinement. The core-shell structure formed during the growth as a
consequence of the different Al and Ga adatom diffusion lengths.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure
New Mechanism for Electronic Energy Relaxation in Nanocrystals
The low-frequency vibrational spectrum of an isolated nanometer-scale solid
differs dramatically from that of a bulk crystal, causing the decay of a
localized electronic state by phonon emission to be inhibited. We show,
however, that an electron can also interact with the rigid translational motion
of a nanocrystal. The form of the coupling is dictated by the equivalence
principle and is independent of the ordinary electron-phonon interaction. We
calculate the rate of nonradiative energy relaxation provided by this mechanism
and establish its experimental observability.Comment: 4 pages, Submitted to Physical Review
Effect of hydrogen on ground state structures of small silicon clusters
We present results for ground state structures of small SiH (2 \leq
\emph{n} \leq 10) clusters using the Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics. In
particular, we focus on how the addition of a hydrogen atom affects the ground
state geometry, total energy and the first excited electronic level gap of an
Si cluster. We discuss the nature of bonding of hydrogen in these
clusters. We find that hydrogen bonds with two silicon atoms only in SiH,
SiH and SiH clusters, while in other clusters (i.e. SiH,
SiH, SiH, SiH, SiH and SiH) hydrogen is bonded
to only one silicon atom. Also in the case of a compact and closed silicon
cluster hydrogen bonds to the cluster from outside. We find that the first
excited electronic level gap of Si and SiH fluctuates as a function
of size and this may provide a first principles basis for the short-range
potential fluctuations in hydrogenated amorphous silicon. Our results show that
the addition of a single hydrogen can cause large changes in the electronic
structure of a silicon cluster, though the geometry is not much affected. Our
calculation of the lowest energy fragmentation products of SiH clusters
shows that hydrogen is easily removed from SiH clusters.Comment: one latex file named script.tex including table and figure caption.
Six postscript figure files. figure_1a.ps and figure_1b.ps are files
representing Fig. 1 in the main tex
Evolution of the electronic structure with size in II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals
In order to provide a quantitatively accurate description of the band gap
variation with sizes in various II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals, we make use
of the recently reported tight-binding parametrization of the corresponding
bulk systems. Using the same tight-binding scheme and parameters, we calculate
the electronic structure of II-VI nanocrystals in real space with sizes ranging
between 5 and 80 {\AA} in diameter. A comparison with available experimental
results from the literature shows an excellent agreement over the entire range
of sizes.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Simultaneous whole-animal 3D-imaging of neuronal activity using light field microscopy
3D functional imaging of neuronal activity in entire organisms at single cell
level and physiologically relevant time scales faces major obstacles due to
trade-offs between the size of the imaged volumes, and spatial and temporal
resolution. Here, using light-field microscopy in combination with 3D
deconvolution, we demonstrate intrinsically simultaneous volumetric functional
imaging of neuronal population activity at single neuron resolution for an
entire organism, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The simplicity of our
technique and possibility of the integration into epi-fluoresence microscopes
makes it an attractive tool for high-speed volumetric calcium imaging.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, incl. supplementary informatio
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