High charge-carrier mobility enables exploitation of carrier multiplication in quantum-dot films

C. S. Suchand Sandeep, Sybren ten Cate, Juleon M. Schins, Tom J. Savenije, Yao Liu, Matt Law, Sachin Kinge, Arjan J. Houtepen () and Laurens D. A. Siebbeles ()
Additional contact information
C. S. Suchand Sandeep: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology
Sybren ten Cate: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology
Juleon M. Schins: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology
Tom J. Savenije: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology
Yao Liu: University of California, Irvine
Matt Law: University of California, Irvine
Sachin Kinge: Toyota Europe, Materials Research & Development
Arjan J. Houtepen: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology
Laurens D. A. Siebbeles: Optoelectronic Materials section, Delft University of Technology

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Carrier multiplication, the generation of multiple electron–hole pairs by a single photon, is of great interest for solar cells as it may enhance their photocurrent. This process has been shown to occur efficiently in colloidal quantum dots, however, harvesting of the generated multiple charges has proved difficult. Here we show that by tuning the charge-carrier mobility in quantum-dot films, carrier multiplication can be optimized and may show an efficiency as high as in colloidal dispersion. Our results are explained quantitatively by the competition between dissociation of multiple electron–hole pairs and Auger recombination. Above a mobility of ~1 cm2 V−1 s−1, all charges escape Auger recombination and are quantitatively converted to free charges, offering the prospect of cheap quantum-dot solar cells with efficiencies in excess of the Shockley–Queisser limit. In addition, we show that the threshold energy for carrier multiplication is reduced to twice the band gap of the quantum dots.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3360 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:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3360

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3360

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 ().