| AVS 57th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Energy Frontiers Topical Conference | Thursday Sessions |
| Session EN+NS-ThM |
| Session: | Nanostructures for Energy Conversion & Storage II |
| Presenter: | J.M. Pietryga, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Authors: | J.M. Pietryga, Los Alamos National Laboratory D.C. Lee, Los Alamos National Laboratory I. Robel, Los Alamos National Laboratory V.I. Klimov, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The use of colloidally synthesized nanomaterials in devices is attractive not only because of the low-cost and scalability of solution-based fabrication methods, but because of the facile control over electronic and optical properties of these materials made possible by structural fine-tuning. As the range of applications-of-interest has become more sophisticated, such tuning has progressed beyond simple control over effective band gap using quantum size effects to include much more fundamental modification of electronic structure and dynamics. Design and synthesis of novel nanomaterials that exploit such effects to create unique materials for use in next-generation solar cells are an important part of the ongoing effort within the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center. I will examine a number of specific examples from this work, including germanium nanocrystals with partial direct-gap behavior and unique infrared-active heterostructures with extremely long-lived charge-separated excited states, and how such materials may be incorporated into devices.