Gap-state engineering of visible-light-active ferroelectrics for photovoltaic applications

Hiroki Matsuo, Yuji Noguchi () and Masaru Miyayama
Additional contact information
Hiroki Matsuo: The University of Tokyo
Yuji Noguchi: The University of Tokyo
Masaru Miyayama: The University of Tokyo

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Photoferroelectrics offer unique opportunities to explore light energy conversion based on their polarization-driven carrier separation and above-bandgap voltages. The problem associated with the wide bandgap of ferroelectric oxides, i.e., the vanishingly small photoresponse under visible light, has been overcome partly by bandgap tuning, but the narrowing of the bandgap is, in principle, accompanied by a substantial loss of ferroelectric polarization. In this article, we report an approach, ‘gap-state’ engineering, to produce photoferroelectrics, in which defect states within the bandgap act as a scaffold for photogeneration. Our first-principles calculations and single-domain thin-film experiments of BiFeO3 demonstrate that gap states half-filled with electrons can enhance not only photocurrents but also photovoltages over a broad photon-energy range that is different from intermediate bands in present semiconductor-based solar cells. Our approach opens a promising route to the material design of visible-light-active ferroelectrics without sacrificing spontaneous polarization.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00245-9 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:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-00245-9

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00245-9

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 ().