Millimeter-scale unipolar transport in high sensitivity organic-inorganic semiconductor X-Ray detectors

Hybrid inorganic-in-organic semiconductors are an attractive class of materials for optoelectronic applications. Traditionally, the thicknesses of organic semiconductors are kept below 1 micron due to poor charge transport in such systems. However, recent work suggests that charge carriers in such organic semiconductors can be transported over centimeter length scales opposing this view. In this work, a unipolar X-ray photoconductor based on a bulk heterojunction architecture, consisting of poly(3-hexylthiophene), a C70 derivative and high atomic number bismuth oxide nanoparticles operating in the 0.1 – 1 mm thickness regime is demonstrated, having a high sensitivity of ~160 µCmGy-1cm-3. The high performance enabled by hole drift lengths approaching a millimeter facilitates a device architecture allowing a high fraction of the incident X-rays to be attenuated. An X-ray imager is demonstrated with sufficient resolution for security applications such as portable baggage screening at border crossings and public events and scalable medical applications

Robotic Process Automation: Contemporary themes and challenges

Through the application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) organisations aim to increase their operational efficiency. In RPA, robots, or ‘bots’ for short, represent software agents capable of interacting with software systems by mimicking user actions, thus alleviating the workload of the human workforce. RPA has already seen significant uptake in practice; solution technologies are offered by multiple vendors. Contrasting with this early practical adoption is the hitherto relative lack of attention to RPA in the academic literature. As a consequence, RPA lacks the sound theoretical foundations that allow for objective reasoning around its application and development. This, in turn, hinders initiatives for achieving meaningful advances in the field. This paper presents a structured literature review that identifies a number of contemporary, RPA-related themes and challenges for future research

Robotic Process Automation: Contemporary themes and challenges

Through the application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) organisations aim to increase their operational efficiency. In RPA, robots, or ‘bots’ for short, represent software agents capable of interacting with software systems by mimicking user actions, thus alleviating the workload of the human workforce. RPA has already seen significant uptake in practice; solution technologies are offered by multiple vendors. Contrasting with this early practical adoption is the hitherto relative lack of attention to RPA in the academic literature. As a consequence, RPA lacks the sound theoretical foundations that allow for objective reasoning around its application and development. This, in turn, hinders initiatives for achieving meaningful advances in the field. This paper presents a structured literature review that identifies a number of contemporary, RPA-related themes and challenges for future research.</p

Approaching the Shockley–Queisser limit for fill factors in lead–tin mixed perovskite photovoltaics

The performance of all solar cells is dictated by charge recombination. A closer to ideal recombination dynamics results in improved performances, with fill factors approaching the limits based on Shockley–Queisser analysis. It is well known that for emerging solar materials such as perovskites, there are several challenges that need to be overcome to achieve high fill factors, particularly for large area lead–tin mixed perovskite solar cells. Here we demonstrate a strategy towards achieving fill factors above 80% through post-treatment of a lead–tin mixed perovskite absorber with guanidinium bromide for devices with an active area of 0.43 cm2. This bromide post-treatment results in a more favorable band alignment at the anode and cathode interfaces, enabling better bipolar extraction. The resulting devices demonstrate an exceptional fill factor of 83%, approaching the Shockley–Queisser limit, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 14.4% for large area devices