Multibandgap quantum dot ensembles for solar-matched infrared energy harvesting

Bin Sun, Olivier Ouellette, F. Pelayo García de Arquer, Oleksandr Voznyy, Younghoon Kim, Mingyang Wei, Andrew H. Proppe, Makhsud I. Saidaminov, Jixian Xu, Mengxia Liu, Peicheng Li, James Z. Fan, Jea Woong Jo, Hairen Tan, Furui Tan, Sjoerd Hoogland, Zheng Hong Lu, Shana O. Kelley and Edward H. Sargent ()
Additional contact information
Bin Sun: University of Toronto
Olivier Ouellette: University of Toronto
F. Pelayo García de Arquer: University of Toronto
Oleksandr Voznyy: University of Toronto
Younghoon Kim: University of Toronto
Mingyang Wei: University of Toronto
Andrew H. Proppe: University of Toronto
Makhsud I. Saidaminov: University of Toronto
Jixian Xu: University of Toronto
Mengxia Liu: University of Toronto
Peicheng Li: University of Toronto
James Z. Fan: University of Toronto
Jea Woong Jo: University of Toronto
Hairen Tan: University of Toronto
Furui Tan: University of Toronto
Sjoerd Hoogland: University of Toronto
Zheng Hong Lu: University of Toronto
Shana O. Kelley: University of Toronto
Edward H. Sargent: University of Toronto

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract As crystalline silicon solar cells approach in efficiency their theoretical limit, strategies are being developed to achieve efficient infrared energy harvesting to augment silicon using solar photons from beyond its 1100 nm absorption edge. Herein we report a strategy that uses multi-bandgap lead sulfide colloidal quantum dot (CQD) ensembles to maximize short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage simultaneously. We engineer the density of states to achieve simultaneously a large quasi-Fermi level splitting and a tailored optical response that matches the infrared solar spectrum. We shape the density of states by selectively introducing larger-bandgap CQDs within a smaller-bandgap CQD population, achieving a 40 meV increase in open-circuit voltage. The near-unity internal quantum efficiency in the optimized multi-bandgap CQD ensemble yielded a maximized photocurrent of 3.7 ± 0.2 mA cm−2. This provides a record for silicon-filtered power conversion efficiency equal to one power point, a 25% (relative) improvement compared to the best previously-reported results.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06342-7 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:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06342-7

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06342-7

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 ().