Lecture

Nanostructured Devices: Low Dimensional Materials and Applications

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In course

MSE-484: Properties of semiconductors and related nanostructures

This course explains the origin of optical and electrical properties of semiconductors. The course elaborates how they change when the semiconductors are reduced to sizes of few nanometers. The course provides also the basis to use software to calculate th ...

Description

This lecture provides an overview of low-dimensional devices, focusing on nanostructured materials such as nanowires and quantum dots. The instructor discusses the fundamental concepts of quantum confinement and its impact on the electronic properties of materials. Key advantages of nanowires, including enhanced optical absorption and improved crystal quality due to strain relaxation, are highlighted. The lecture also covers the applications of these materials in solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs), emphasizing the unique properties that arise from their low-dimensional nature. The instructor explains the mechanisms behind nanowire solar cells, including the benefits of axial and radial junctions, and discusses the challenges faced in their fabrication. Additionally, the lecture touches on quantum dots, their synthesis, and their role in optoelectronic devices. The discussion concludes with insights into the Coulomb blockade phenomenon and its implications for charge transport in quantum dots, providing a comprehensive understanding of the current state of research in nanostructured devices.

Instructors (2)

Valerio Piazza

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Claire Valentine Blaga, Matilde Cantele, Julia Sarah Marhic Past EPFL PhD Students as codirector Michele Zendrini Courses Functional properties of materials MSE-210 The main objective of this course is to present the concepts allowing the understanding of the fundamental principles that enable to predict the properties of the materials. The goal is that with these concepts, one will be able to realize material design and/or to understand novel materials.

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral

2014 Associate Professor at the Institut des Matériaux, EPFL 2008 Assistant Professor Tenure Track at the Institut des Matériaux, EPFL 2009 Habilitation in Physics, Technische Universität München 2005-2010 Marie Curie Excellence Grant Team Leader at Walter Schottky Institut, Technische Universität München, on leave from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France) 2004-2005 Visiting Scientist at the California Institute of Technology, on leave from CNRS; Senior Scientist and co-founder of Aonex Technologies (a startup company for large area layer transfer of InP and Ge on foreign substrates for the main application of multi-junction solar cells) 2003 Permanent Research Fellow at CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, France 2001-2002 Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology Study of wafer bonding and hydrogen-induced exfoliation processes for integration of mismatched materials in views of photovoltaic applications Sponsor: Professor Harry A. Atwater 1998-2001 PhD in Materials Science, Ecole Polytechnique Study of polymorphous silicon: growth mechanisms, optical and structural properties. Application to Solar Cells and Thin Film Transistors Advisor: Pere Roca i Cabarrocas 1997-1998 Diplôme dEtudes Approfondis (D.E.A.) in Materials Science at Université Paris XI, France . 1993-1997 BA in Physics at Universitat de Barcelona

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Electrical engineering

Photonics: Topics in photonics

Energy engineering

Solar power: Topics in solar power

Related concepts (32)

Solar cell

A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels.

Organic solar cell

An organic solar cell (OSC) or plastic solar cell is a type of photovoltaic that uses organic electronics, a branch of electronics that deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. Most organic photovoltaic cells are polymer solar cells. The molecules used in organic solar cells are solution-processable at high throughput and are cheap, resulting in low production costs to fabricate a large volume.

Thin-film solar cell

Thin-film solar cells are made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin films or TFs) of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are typically a few nanometers (nm) to a few microns (μm) thick–much thinner than the wafers used in conventional crystalline silicon (c-Si) based solar cells, which can be up to 200 μm thick. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si).

Solar-cell efficiency

Solar-cell efficiency refers to the portion of energy in the form of sunlight that can be converted via photovoltaics into electricity by the solar cell. The efficiency of the solar cells used in a photovoltaic system, in combination with latitude and climate, determines the annual energy output of the system. For example, a solar panel with 20% efficiency and an area of 1 m2 will produce 200 kWh/yr at Standard Test Conditions if exposed to the Standard Test Condition solar irradiance value of 1000 W/m2 for 2.

Dye-sensitized solar cell

A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC, DSC, DYSC or Grätzel cell) is a low-cost solar cell belonging to the group of thin film solar cells. It is based on a semiconductor formed between a photo-sensitized anode and an electrolyte, a photoelectrochemical system. The modern version of a dye solar cell, also known as the Grätzel cell, was originally co-invented in 1988 by Brian O'Regan and Michael Grätzel at UC Berkeley and this work was later developed by the aforementioned scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) until the publication of the first high efficiency DSSC in 1991.

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