Omnidirectional whispering-gallery-mode lasing in GaN microdisk obtained by selective area growth on sapphire substrate

The optical properties of hexagonal GaN microdisk arrays grown on sapphire substrates by selective area growth (SAG) technique were investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) lasing is observed from various directions of the GaN pyramids collected at room temperature, with the dominant lasing mode being Transverse-Electric (TE) polarized. A relaxation of compressive strain in the lateral overgrown region of the GaN microdisk is illustrated by photoluminescence (PL) mapping and Raman spectroscopy. A strong correlation between the crystalline quality and lasing behavior of the GaN microdisks was also demonstrated

16% efficient silicon/organic heterojunction solar cells using narrow band-gap conjugated polyelectrolytes based low resistance electron-selective contacts

Dopant-free silicon (Si)/organic heterojunction solar cells (HSCs) have drawn much attention due to their immense potential in achieving high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) with simple device architectures and fabrication procedures. However, unsatisfied rear-contacts severely hinder further improvement in PCEs for these promising HSCs. Exploring effective cathodic interfacial materials with low temperature fabrication to replace conventional diffusion layer shows the extremely importance of technical innovation. Here, poly[4,8-bis (2-ethylhexyloxyl)benzo[1,2-b: 4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-ethylhexyl-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-2-carboxylate-4,6-diyl] (PTB7)-based narrow band-gap conjugated polyelectrolytes, PTB7-NBr and PTB7-NSO3, are firstly employed as effective cathodic interfacial materials in Si/organic HSCs to improve the passivation and electron transporting property at n-Si/Al interface. The low-temperature proceeded electron-selective contact of n-Si/PTB7-NBr/Al gives a contact resistivity as low as 6.7 +/- 0.8 m Omega cm(2), upon it a remarkable PCE of 16.0% is finally obtained from a completely dopant-free Si/organic HSC. The understanding of conjugated polyelectrolytes on interfacial modification may lead a path to fabricate high performance Si/organic heterojunction devices with efficient charge transfer process at a simplified fabrication process

Assessing Risks at a Former Chemical Facility, Nanjing City, China: An Early Test of the New Remediation Guidelines for Waste Sites in China

China has recognized the need to investigate and remediate former manufacturing facilities and return the land they occupy to a new, productive use. As a result, national guidelines entitled “Technical guidelines for Risk assessment of contaminated sites” were issued in 2014 to guide site investigations, risk assessments, and remedial actions to reduce or mitigate potential exposures of people and ecological receptors to contaminants. This study was pursued to gain experience with the new guidelines at a small, former chemical manufacturing facility in Nanjing City, China. A series of investigations were undertaken to determine the locations and levels of contaminants in soils and groundwater, develop a conceptual site model, and prepare an initial estimate of risks to humans and ecological receptors. Groundwater results revealed several contaminants that were greater than the Dutch Intervention Levels, yet, surprisingly, few, if any, contaminants were found in multiple samplings of soil. Despite the limited investigations of soil and groundwater, data were sufficient to prepare initial risk evaluations for humans, both for systemic toxins and potentially carcinogenic chemicals. The site and nearby area contain industrial facilities and residential neighborhoods; hence, there were too few ecological receptors to warrant an ecological risk assessment. The new guidelines for site investigations and risk assessments proved sufficient for the purposes of this small site; however, more complex sites may require much greater levels of effort and more detailed guidelines for investigations, risk assessments, and remedial actions

Over 16.7% Efficiency Organic-Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells with Solution-Processed Dopant-Free Contacts for Both Polarities

Realization of synchronous improvement in optical management and electrical engineering is necessary to achieve high-performance photovoltaic device. However, inherent challenges are faced in organic-silicon heterojunction solar cells (HSCs) due to the poor contact property of polymer on structured silicon surface. Herein, a remarkable efficiency boost from 12.6% to over 16.7% in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/n-silicon (PEDOT:PSS/n-Si) HSCs by independent optimization of hole-/electron-selective contacts only relying on solution-based processes is realized. A bilayer PEDOT:PSS film with different functionalizations is utilized to synchronously realize conformal contact and effective carrier collection on textured Si surface, making the photogenerated carriers be well separated at heterojunction interface. Meanwhile, fullerene derivative is used as electron-transporting layer at the rear n-Si/Al interface to reduce the contact barrier. The study of carriers' transport and independent optimization on separately contacted layers may lead to an effective and simplified path to fabricate high-performance organic-silicon heterojunction devices

Synergistic effect of TiO2 hierarchical submicrospheres for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells

The performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) could be improved by using rationally designed mesoporous film structure for electron collection, dye adsorption and light scattering. The development of a novel double layer film prepared by TiO2 hierarchical submicrospheres and nanoparticles was reported in this article. The submicrospheres were composed of rutile nanorods of 10 nm diameter and the length of 150-250 nm, which facilitated fast electron transport, charge collection and light scattering. Using a double layer structure consisting of the 10 wt% film as a dye loading layer and the 50 wt% film as the light scattering layer, C101 sensitizer and liquid electrolyte, DSC yielded power conversion efficiency of 9.68% under 1 sun illumination

Scattering effect of the high-index dielectric nanospheres for high performance hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells

Dielectric nanosphere arrays are considered as promising light-trapping designs with the capability of transforming the freely propagated sunlight into guided modes. This kinds of designs are especially beneficial to the ultrathin hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells due to the advantages of using lossless material and easily scalable assembly. In this paper, we demonstrate numerically that the front-sided integration of high-index subwavelength titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanosphere arrays can significantly enhance the light absorption in 100 nm-thick a-Si:H thin films and thus the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of related solar cells. The main reason behind is firmly attributed to the strong scattering effect excited by TiO2 nanospheres in the whole waveband, which contributes to coupling the light into a-Si: H layer via two typical ways: 1) in the short-waveband, the forward scattering of TiO2 nanospheres excite the Mie resonance, which focuses the light into the surface of the a-Si:H layer and thus provides a leaky channel; 2) in the long-waveband, the transverse waveguided modes caused by powerful scattering effectively couple the light into almost the whole active layer. Moreover, the finite-element simulations demonstrate that photocurrent density (J(ph)) can be up to 15.01 mA/cm(2), which is 48.76% higher than that of flat system

Improvement on the Si/PEDOT:PSS hybrid solar cells by rear-sided passivation with SiNx:H layers

A patterned silicon nitride (SiNx:H) passivation layer was employed to improve the performance of silicon/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(stylenesulfonate) (Si/PEDOT:PSS) hybrid solar cells, achieving of an enhancement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.6%. The insertion of patterned SiNx:H layer with a 80% SiNx:H-to-substrate ratio boosted the open circuit voltage (V-oc) from 523.1 mV to 573.4 mV, suggesting the well-passivation property of the patterned SiNx:H thin layer that was created by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and lithography processes