AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session NS-MoA

Invited Paper NS-MoA5
Next Generation Photovoltaics from Solution-processed Quantum Dot Assemblies

Monday, November 7, 2016, 3:00 pm, Room 101D

Session: Nanophotonics, Plasmonics, and Energy
Presenter: Joseph Luther, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Quantum confined semiconductor nanocrystals called quantum dots (QDs), are promising materials for next-generation photovoltaic technologies and other various optoelectronic applications. QDs offer several key benefits over bulk semiconductors. Researchers are actively exploiting these benefits to produce prototypes for the next generation of photovoltaic devices. New synthetic routes that employ cation-exchange reactions to produce well-controlled and stable lead chalcogenide materials will be discussed. Similarly, the effects of metal halide treatments of PbSe QD solids will be explored in various approaches. These metal halides improve the surface properties of the QD assemblies, result in conductive QD solids, and the resulting QD solids have a significant reduction in the carbon content compared to typical QD film treatments using thiols and organic halides. Even when the QDs are coupled in arrays through the utilization of recent developments in surface ligand modification, they still exhibit quantum confinement and possess intriguing ensemble properties that can be exploited in thin films, as the active layer of solar cells. The future challenges of QDs in solar cells will be discussed in relation to device physics measurements that can probe the working principles behind state of the art devices. The method developed here produces QD solar cells that perform well even at film thicknesses approaching one micron, indicating improved carrier transport in the QD films.