Publications related to Single Photon Counting UV Solar-Blind Detectors Using Silicon and III-Nitride Materials

III-N blue-emitting epi-structures with high densities of dislocations: Fundamental mechanisms for efficiency improvement and applications

Since the dawn of humanity, human beings seeked to light their surroundings for their well-being, security and development. The efficiency of ancient lighting devices, e.g. oil lamps or candles, was in the order of 0.03-0.04% and jumped to 0.4-0.6% with th ...

EPFL2024

Study of growth-induced point defects and their impact on InGaN-based optoelectronic devices

Yao Chen

GaN exhibits a decomposition tendency for temperatures far below its melting point and common growth temperatures used in metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE).This characteristic is known to be a major obstacle for realising GaN bulk substrate. There ...

EPFL2024

Investigation of room-temperature single-photon emitters in GaN-based materials and GaN/AlN quantum dots

Johann Nicolaï Stachurski

Over the past decade, quantum photonics platforms aiming at harnessing the fundamental properties of single particles, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, have flourished. In this context, single-photon emitters capable of operating at ...

EPFL2024

Colloidal Atomic Layer Deposition on Nanocrystals Using Ligand-Modified Precursors

Raffaella Buonsanti, Anna Loiudice, Petru Pasquale Albertini, Ona Segura Lecina, Coline Marie Agathe Boulanger, Philippe Benjamin Green, Mark Adrian Newton, Krishna Kumar, Jari Leemans

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a method to grow thin metal oxide layers on a variety of materials for applications spanning from electronics to catalysis. Extending ALD to colloidally stable nanocrystals promises to combine the benefits of thin metal oxi ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Investigating Non-equilibrium Physics in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors and Quantum Materials via Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Hui-Yuan Chen

This thesis uses femtosecond laser spectroscopy in studying strong correlation in condensed matters that are pertinent to future technology: a wide bandgap perovskite and a quantum material, with the employment of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy in th ...

EPFL2024

Advanced Silicon and SWIR Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes: Design, Simulation, and Characterization

Ekin Kizilkan

Low-level light detection with high spatial and timing accuracy is a growing area of interest by virtue of applications such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), biomedical imaging, time-resolved Raman spectroscopy, and quantum applications. Single-phot ...

EPFL2024

Microstructural and electrical characterization of high temperature passivating contacts for silicon solar cells

Sofia Libraro

Recombination at metal/semiconductor interfaces represents the main limitation in mainstream c-Si solar cells, primarily based on the passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) concept. Full-area passivating contacts based on SiOx/poly-Si stacks are a candida ...

EPFL2024

Plasmonically enhanced molecular junctions for investigation of atomic-scale fluctuations in self-assembled monolayers

Sakthi Priya Amirtharaj

Molecular junctions represent a fascinating frontier in the realm of nanotechnology and are one of the smallest optoelectronic devices possible, consisting of individual molecules or a group of molecules that serve as the active element sandwiched between ...

EPFL2024

Shortwave Infrared-Sensitive, Narrowband Organic Upconversion Devices with a Gain

Wei-Hsu Hu

Sensing and imaging of light in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) range is increasingly used in various fields, including bio-imaging, remote sensing, and semiconductor process control. SWIR-sensitive organic photodetectors (OPDs) are promising because organic ...

EPFL2024

Silicon CMOS and InGaAs(P)/InP SPADs for NIR/SWIR detection

Utku Karaca

Applications demanding imaging at low-light conditions at near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) wavelengths, such as quantum information science, biophotonics, space imaging, and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), have accelerated the develo ...

EPFL2024

Font Side Solutions for c-Si Solar Cells with High-Temperature Passivating Contacts

Ezgi Genç

In this work, we studied the potential of using thin films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) for two main purposes: introducing an n-type passivating contact at the front of a TOPCon solar cell, or simplifying the fabrication o ...

EPFL2024

Hybrid organic/metal-oxide shells on semiconductor nanocrystals via colloidal atomic layer deposition

Ona Segura Lecina

The escalating energy demand and the imperative necessity to reduce the carbon footprint require transformative approaches to energy conversion. Materials chemistry plays a pivotal role in addressing these global challenges by developing novel materials fo ...

EPFL2024

Nanostructure and Optical Property Tailoring of Zinc Tin Nitride Thin Films through Phenomenological Decoupling: A Pathway to Enhanced Control

Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Johann Michler, Amit Sharma, Daniele Casari, Caroline Hain, Thomas Nelis

This work addresses the need for precise control of thin film sputtering processes to enable thin film material tailoring on the example of zinc tin nitride (ZTN) thin films deposited via microwave plasma-assisted high power reactive magnetron sputtering ( ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Elimination of buried interfacial voids for efficient perovskite solar cells

Bo Chen, Bin Ding, Yan Liu, Xianfu Zhang

Establishing optimal interfacial contact is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs). However, formation of voids at buried interface of perovskite films often hinders this critical objective. Our investigation reveals that the ...

Elsevier2024

Durable Perovskite Solar Cells with 24.5% Average Efficiency: The Role of Rigid Conjugated Core in Molecular Semiconductors

Michael Graetzel, Shaik Mohammed Zakeeruddin, Peng Wang, Felix Thomas Eickemeyer, Ming Ren

Efficient and robust n-i-p perovskite solar cells necessitate superior organic hole-transport materials with both mechanical and electronic prowess. Deciphering the structure-property relationship of these materials is crucial for practical perovskite sola ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

A comprehensive physical model for the sensitivity of silicon heterojunction photovoltaic modules to water ingress

Christophe Ballif, Alessandro Francesco Aldo Virtuani, Luca Gnocchi, Olatz Arriaga Arruti

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ)-solar modules-when encapsulated with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)-are known to be extremely sensitive to water ingress. The reason for this is, however, not clear. Here, we explain the root causes of this degradation mechanism ...

Cell Press2024

Mott physics in the multiflavored age

Frédéric Mila

The multiflavor Mott insulators, whose local Hilbert space consists of multiple degrees of freedom, occur widely in both quantum materials and ultracold atom systems. This Comment recommends the review article by Chen and Wu that is, to the author's knowle ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Alleviating nanostructural phase impurities enhances the optoelectronic properties, device performance and stability of cesium-formamidinium metal-halide perovskites

Christophe Ballif, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Beat Ruhstaller, Mostafa Rabie Shlaly Bahr Othman, Daniel Anthony Jacobs, Christian Michael Wolff, Anaël Morgane Jaffrès, Austin George Kuba

The technique of alloying FA+ with Cs+ is often used to promote structural stabilization of the desirable alpha-FAPbI3 phase in halide perovskite devices. However, the precise mechanisms by which these alloying approaches improve the optoelectronic quality ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Enhanced performance of perovskite solar cell via up-conversion YLiF4:Yb, Er nanoparticles

Mounir Driss Mensi, Anwar Qasem M Alanazi, Masaud Hassan S Almalki

We report a simple and effective method for producing lanthanide ion-doped lithium-fluoride-based nanocrystals (YLiF4). We utilized those nanoparticles for up-conversion in fabricated perovskite solar cells. The obtained results shows that the up-conversio ...

Elsevier2024

Encapsulation strategies for mechanical impact and damp heat reliability improvement of lightweight photovoltaic modules towards vehicle-integrated applications

Fabiana Lisco

Lightweight modules are essential for next-generation vehicle-integrated photovoltaic (VIPV) applications, such as solar-powered cars, allowing integration of solar cells beyond the roof, and on the hood, boot and body panels, and thereby extending the dri ...

Elsevier2024