Varying Surface Chemistries for p‑Doped and n‑Doped Silicon Nanocrystals and Impact on Photovoltaic Devices

Doping of quantum confined nanocrystals offers unique opportunities to control the bandgap and the Fermi energy level. In this contribution, boron-doped (p-doped) and phosphorus-doped (n-doped) quantum confined silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) are surface-engineered in ethanol by an atmospheric pressure radio frequency microplasma. We reveal that surface chemistries induced on the nanocrystals strongly depend on the type of dopants and result in considerable diverse optoelectronic properties (e.g., photoluminescence quantum yield is enhanced more than 6 times for n-type SiNCs). Changes in the position of the SiNCs Fermi levels are also studied and implications for photovoltaic application are discussed

A Photodetector Based on p‑Si/n-ZnO Nanotube Heterojunctions with High Ultraviolet Responsivity

Enhanced ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs) with high responsivity comparable to that of visible and infrared photodetectors are needed for commercial applications. n-Type ZnO nanotubes (NTs) with high-quality optical, structural, and electrical properties on a p-type Si(100) substrate are successfully fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to produce a UV PD with high responsivity, for the first time. We measure the current–voltage characteristics of the device under dark and illuminated conditions and demonstrated the high stability and responsivity (that reaches ∼101.2 A W^–1) of the fabricated UV PD. Time-resolved spectroscopy is employed to identify exciton confinement, indicating that the high PD performance is due to optical confinement, the high surface-to-volume ratio, the high structural quality of the NTs, and the high photoinduced carrier density. The superior detectivity and responsivity of our NT-based PD clearly demonstrate that fabrication of high-performance UV detection devices for commercial applications is possible

Titanium carbide MXene nucleation layer for epitaxial growth of high-quality GaN nanowires on amorphous substrates

Growing III-nitride nanowires on 2D materials is advantageous, as it effectively decouples the underlying growth substrate from the properties of the nanowires. As a relatively new family of 2D materials, MXenes are promising candidates as III-nitride nanowire nucleation layers capable of providing simultaneous transparency and conductivity. In this work, we demonstrate the direct epitaxial growth of GaN nanowires on Ti3C2 MXene films. The MXene films consist of nanoflakes spray coated onto an amorphous silica substrate. We observed an epitaxial relationship between the GaN nanowires and the MXene nanoflakes due to the compatibility between the triangular lattice of Ti3C2 MXene and the hexagonal structure of wurtzite GaN. The GaN nanowires on MXene show good material quality and partial transparency at visible wavelengths. Nanoscale electrical characterization using conductive atomic force microscopy reveals a Schottky barrier height of ∼330 meV between the GaN nanowire and the Ti3C2 MXene film. Our work highlights the potential of using MXene as a transparent and conductive preorienting nucleation layer for high-quality GaN growth on amorphous substrates

Highly efficient transverse-electric-dominant ultraviolet-c emission employing GaN multiple quantum disks in AlN nanowires matrix

Heavy reliance on extensively studied AlGaN based light emitting diodes (LEDs) to replace environmentally hazardous mercury based ultraviolet (UV) lamps is inevitable. However, external quantum efficiency (EQE) for AlGaN based deep UV emitters remains poor. Dislocation induced nonradiative recombination centers and poor electron-hole wavefunction overlap due to the large polarization field induced quantum confined stark effect (QCSE) in “Al” rich AlGaN are some of the key factors responsible for poor EQE. In addition, the transverse electric polarized light is extremely suppressed in “Al”-rich AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) because of the undesired crossing over among the light hole (LH), heavy hole (HH) and crystal-field split-off (SH) states. Here, optical and structural integrities of dislocation-free ultrathin GaN quantum disk (QDisk) (~ 1.2 nm) embedded in AlN barrier (~ 3 nm) grown employing plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE) are investigated considering it as a novel nanostructure to realize highly efficient TE polarized deep UV emitters. The structural and chemical integrities of thus grown QDisks are investigated by high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM). We, particularly, emphasize the polarization dependent photoluminescence (PL) study of the GaN Disks to accomplish almost purely TE polarized UV (~ 260 nm) light. In addition, we observed significantly high internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of ~ 80 %, which is attributed to the enhanced overlap of the electron-hole wavefunction in extremely quantum confined ultrathin GaN QDisks, thereby presenting GaN QDisks embedded in AlN nanowires as a practical pathway towards the efficient deep UV emitters

Surface Passivation of GaN Nanowires for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water-Splitting

Hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical water-splitting is a key source of clean and sustainable energy. The use of one-dimensional nanostructures as photoelectrodes is desirable for photoelectrochemical water-splitting applications due to the ultralarge surface areas, lateral carrier extraction schemes, and superior light-harvesting capabilities. However, the unavoidable surface states of nanostructured materials create additional charge carrier trapping centers and energy barriers at the semiconductor–electrolyte interface, which severely reduce the solar-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. In this work, we address the issue of surface states in GaN nanowire photoelectrodes by employing a simple and low-cost surface treatment method, which utilizes an organic thiol compound (i.e., 1,2-ethanedithiol). The surface-treated photocathode showed an enhanced photocurrent density of −31 mA/cm² at −0.2 V versus RHE with an incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency of 18.3%, whereas untreated nanowires yielded only 8.1% efficiency. Furthermore, the surface passivation provides enhanced photoelectrochemical stability as surface-treated nanowires retained ∼80% of their initial photocurrent value and produced 8000 μmol of gas molecules over 55 h at acidic conditions (pH ∼ 0), whereas the untreated nanowires demonstrated only <4 h of photoelectrochemical stability. These findings shed new light on the importance of surface passivation of nanostructured photoelectrodes for photoelectrochemical applications

Inside Perovskites: Quantum Luminescence from Bulk Cs₄PbBr₆ Single Crystals

Zero-dimensional perovskite-related structures (0D-PRS) are a new frontier of perovskite-based materials. 0D-PRS, commonly synthesized in powder form, manifest distinctive optical properties such as strong photoluminescence (PL), narrow emission line width, and high exciton binding energy. These properties make 0D-PRS compelling for several types of optoelectronic applications, including phosphor screens and electroluminescent devices. However, it would not be possible to rationally design the chemistry and structure of these materials, without revealing the origins of their optical behavior, which is contradictory to the well-studied APbX₃ perovskites. In this work, we synthesize single crystals of Cs₄PbBr₆ 0D-PRS, and investigated the origins of their unique optical and electronic properties. The crystals exhibit a PL quantum yield higher than 40%, the highest reported for perovskite-based single crystals. Time-resolved and temperature dependent PL studies, supported by DFT calculations, and structural analysis, elucidate an emissive behavior reminiscent of a quantum confined structure rather than a typical bulk perovskite material

Double Charged Surface Layers in Lead Halide Perovskite Crystals

Understanding defect chemistry, particularly ion migration, and its significant effect on the surface’s optical and electronic properties is one of the major challenges impeding the development of hybrid perovskite-based devices. Here, using both experimental and theoretical approaches, we demonstrated that the surface layers of the perovskite crystals may acquire a high concentration of positively charged vacancies with the complementary negatively charged halide ions pushed to the surface. This charge separation near the surface generates an electric field that can induce an increase of optical band gap in the surface layers relative to the bulk. We found that the charge separation, electric field, and the amplitude of shift in the bandgap strongly depend on the halides and organic moieties of perovskite crystals. Our findings reveal the peculiarity of surface effects that are currently limiting the applications of perovskite crystals and more importantly explain their origins, thus enabling viable surface passivation strategies to remediate them