1 research outputs found
High-Efficiency Selective Electron Tunnelling in a Heterostructure Photovoltaic Diode
A heterostructure
photovoltaic diode
featuring an all-solid-state TiO<sub>2</sub>/graphene/dye ternary
interface with high-efficiency photogenerated charge separation/transport
is described here. Light absorption is accomplished by dye molecules
deposited on the outside surface of graphene as photoreceptors to
produce photoexcited electron–hole pairs. Unlike conventional
photovoltaic conversion, in this heterostructure both photoexcited
electrons and holes tunnel along the same direction into graphene,
but only electrons display efficient ballistic transport toward the
TiO<sub>2</sub> transport layer, thus leading to effective photon-to-electricity
conversion. On the basis of this ipsilateral selective electron tunnelling
(ISET) mechanism, a model monolayer photovoltaic device (PVD) possessing
a TiO<sub>2</sub>/graphene/acridine orange ternary interface showed
∼86.8% interfacial separation/collection efficiency, which
guaranteed an ultrahigh absorbed photon-to-current efficiency (APCE,
∼80%). Such an ISET-based PVD may become a fundamental device
architecture for photovoltaic solar cells, photoelectric detectors,
and other novel optoelectronic applications with obvious advantages,
such as high efficiency, easy fabrication, scalability, and universal
availability of cost-effective materials