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- Encapsulation of Nanostructures in a Dielectric Matrix Providing Optical Enhancement in Ultrathin Solar CellsPublication . Oliveira, Antonio; de Wild, Jessica; Oliveira, Kevin; Valença, Beatriz A.; Guerreiro, Joana Rafaela; Abalde-Cela, Sara; Lopes, Tomás; Ribeiro, Rodrigo M.; Cunha, José Miguel; M.C.Alberto; Monteiro, Margarida; Violas, André; Silva, Ana Gomes; Prado, Marta; Fernandes, P. A.; Vermang, Bart; Salomé, P. M. P.The incorporation of nanostructures in optoelectronic devices for enhancing their optical performance is widely studied. However, several problems related to the processing complexity and the low performance of the nanostructures have hindered such actions in real-life devices. Herein, a novel way of introducing gold nanoparticles in a solar cell structure is proposed in which the nanostructures are encapsulated with a dielectric layer, shielding them from high temperatures and harsh growth processing conditions of the remaining device. Through optical simulations, an enhancement of the effective optical path length of approximately four times the nominal thickness of the absorber layer is verified with the new architecture. Furthermore, the proposed concept in a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell device is demonstrated, where the short-circuit current density is increased by 17.4%. The novel structure presented in this work is achieved by combining a bottom-up chemical approach of depositing the nanostructures with a top-down photolithographic process, which allows for an electrical contact.
- Electronic Conduction Mechanisms and Defects in Polycrystalline Antimony SelenidePublication . Cifuentes, N.; Ghosh, Santunu; Shongolova, A.; Correia, M. R.; Salomé, P. M. P.; Fernandes, P. A.; Ranjbar, S.; Garud, S.; Vermang, B.; Ribeiro, G. M.; González, J. C.A study of the electronic conduction mechanisms and electrically active defects in polycrystalline Sb2Se3 is presented. It is shown that for temperatures above 200 K, the electrical transport is dominated by thermal emission of free holes, ionized from shallow acceptors, over the intergrain potential barriers. In this temperature range, the temperature dependence of the mobility of holes, limited by the intergrain potential barriers, is the main contributor to the observed thermal activation energy of the conductivity of 485 meV. However, at lower temperatures, nearest-neighbor and Mott variable range hopping transport in the bulk of the grains turn into the dominant conduction mechanisms. Important parameters of the electronic structure of the Sb2Se3 thin film such as the average intergrain potential barrier height ϕ = 391 meV, the intergrain trap density Nt = 3.4 × 1011 cm−2, the shallow acceptor ionization energy EA0 = 124 meV, the acceptor density NA = 1 × 1017 cm−3, the net donor density ND = 8.3 × 1016 cm−3, and the compensation ratio k = 0, 79 were determined from the analysis of these measurements.