Carrier multiplication in van der Waals layered transition metal dichalcogenides

Ji-Hee Kim (), Matthew R. Bergren, Jin Cheol Park, Subash Adhikari, Michael Lorke, Thomas Frauenheim, Duk-Hyun Choe, Beom Kim, Hyunyong Choi, Tom Gregorkiewicz () and Young Hee Lee ()
Additional contact information
Ji-Hee Kim: Institute for Basic Science
Matthew R. Bergren: Institute for Basic Science
Jin Cheol Park: Institute for Basic Science
Subash Adhikari: Institute for Basic Science
Michael Lorke: Universitat Bremen
Thomas Frauenheim: Universitat Bremen
Duk-Hyun Choe: Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT)
Beom Kim: Yonsei University
Hyunyong Choi: Seoul National University
Tom Gregorkiewicz: University of Amsterdam
Young Hee Lee: Institute for Basic Science

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Carrier multiplication (CM) is a process in which high-energy free carriers relax by generation of additional electron-hole pairs rather than by heat dissipation. CM is promising disruptive improvements in photovoltaic energy conversion and light detection technologies. Current state-of-the-art nanomaterials including quantum dots and carbon nanotubes have demonstrated CM, but are not satisfactory owing to high-energy-loss and inherent difficulties with carrier extraction. Here, we report CM in van der Waals (vdW) MoTe2 and WSe2 films, and find characteristics, commencing close to the energy conservation limit and reaching up to 99% CM conversion efficiency with the standard model. This is demonstrated by ultrafast optical spectroscopy with independent approaches, photo-induced absorption, photo-induced bleach, and carrier population dynamics. Combined with a high lateral conductivity and an optimal bandgap below 1 eV, these superior CM characteristics identify vdW materials as an attractive candidate material for highly efficient and mechanically flexible solar cells in the future.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13325-9 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-13325-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13325-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().