• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.157-167
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• 2014

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells have attracted great attention due to their cost-effectiveness and solution-processability, as well as their size-dependent optical and electrical properties. The power conversion efficiency of CQD solar cells has rapidly increased up to ~8.6%, which corresponds to the 3 - 4 fold improvement during the last 3 - 4 years. Up to now, there have been many pioneering results in CQD solar cells. Here, we review the recent progress of CQD solar cells including CQD synthesis strategy and device structure engineering.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.272-276
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• 2015

The PbS quantum dot is an emerging photovoltaic material, which may provide high efficiency breakthroughs. The most crucial element for the high efficiency solar cells's development is to understand charge transport characteristics of PbS quantum dot solids, which are also important in planning strategic research. We have investigated charge transport characteristics of PbS quantum dot solids thin films using space charge limited conduction analysis and assessed thickness dependent photovoltaic performances. The extracted carrier drift mobility was $low-10^{-2}cm^2/Vs$ with the estimated diffusion length about 50 nm. These and recently reported values were compared with those from a commercial photovoltaic material, and we present an essential element in further development of PbS quantum dot solids materials.

• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.504-508
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• 2012

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1776-1782
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• 2005

ZnSe/ZnS, UV-blue luminescent core shell quantum dots, were synthesized via a thermal decomposition reaction of organometallic zinc and solvent coordinated Selenium (TOPSe) in a hot solvent mixture. The synthetic conditions of the core (ZnSe) and the shell (ZnS) were independently studied at various reaction temperature conditions. The obtained colloidal nanocrystals at corresponding temperatures were characterized for their optical properties by UV-vis, room temperature solution photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and further obtained powders were characterized by XRD, TEM, and EDXS analyses. The synthetic temperature condition to obtain the best PL emission intensity for the ZnSe core was 300 ${^{\circ}C}$, and for the optimum shell capping, the temperature was 135 ${^{\circ}C}$. At this temperature, solution PL spectrum showed a narrow emission peak at 427 nm with a PL efficiency of 15%. In addition, the measured particle sizes for the ZnSe/ZnS nanocomposite via TEM were in the range of 5 to 12 nm. Furthermore, we have synthesized water-soluble ZnSe/ZnS nanoparticles by capping the ZnSe/ZnS hydrophobic surface with mercaptoacetate (MAA) molecules. For the obtained aqueous colloidal solution, the UV-vis spectrum showed an absorption peak at 250 nm, and the solution PL emission spectrum showed a peak at 425 nm, which is similar to that for hydrophobic quantum dot ZnSe/ZnS. However, the calculated PL efficiency was relatively low (0.1%) due to the luminescence quenching by water and MAA molecules. The capping ligand was also characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, with the carbonyl stretching peak in the mercaptoacetate molecule appearing at 1575 $cm ^{-1}$. Finally, the particle sizes of the MAA capped ZnSe/ZnS were measured by TEM, showing a range of 12 to 17 nm.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.98-107
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• 2016

Third-generation photovoltaics are of low cost based on solution processes and are targeting a high efficiency. To meet the commercial demand, however, significant improvements of both efficiency and stability are required. In this sense, interfacial engineering can be useful key to solve these issues because trap sites and interfacial energy barrier and/or chemical instability at organic/organic and organic/inorganic interfaces are critical factors of efficiency and stability degradation. Here, we thoroughly review the interfacial engineering strategies applicable to three representative third-generation photovoltaics - organic, perovskite, colloidal quantum dot solar cell devices.

• Proceedings of the Optical Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.262-263
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• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.280-280
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• 2010

Semiconductor quantum dots are of great interest for both fundamental research and industrial applications due to their unique size dependant properties. The most promising application of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (quantum dots or QDs) is probably as emitters in biomedical labeling, LEDs, lasers etc. As compared to II-VI quantum dots, III-V have attracted greater interest owing to their less ionic lattice, larger exciton diameters and reduced toxicity. Among the III-V semiconductor quantum dots, Indium Phosphide (InP) is a popular material due to its bulk band gap of 1.35 (eV) which is responsible for the photoluminescence emission wavelength ranging from blue to near infrared with change in size of QDs. Nevertheless, in recent years, the exact type of collective properties that arise when semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are assembled into two- or three-dimensional arrays has drawn much interest. The term "uantum dot solids" is used to indicate three-dimensional assemblies of semiconductor QDs. The optoelectronic properties of the quantum dot solids are known to depend on the electronic structure of the individual quantum dot building blocks and on their electronic interactions. This paper reports an efficient and rapid method to produce highly luminescent and monodisperse quantum dots solution and solid through fabrication of InP thin films. By varying the molar concentration of Indium to Ligand, QDs of different size were prepared. The absorption and emission behaviors were also studied. Similar measurements were also performed on InP quantum dot solid by fabricating InP thin films. The optical properties of the thin films are measured at different curing temperatures which show a blue shift with increase in temperature. The dielectric properties of the thin films were also investigated by Capacitance-voltage(C-V) measurements in a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.347.2-347.2
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• 2016

Recently, in order to improve the performance of the colloidal quantum dot solar cells (CQDSCs), various efforts such as the modification of the cell architecture and surface treatment for quantum dot (QD) passivation have been made. Especially, the incorporation of halides into the QD matrix was reported to improve the performances significantly via passivating QD trap states that lower the life-time of the minority-carrier. In this work, we fabricated a lead sulfide (PbS) QD bilayer treated with different ligands and utilized it as a photoactive layer of the CQDSCs. The bottom and top PbS layer was treated using metal iodide ($MI_x$ and butanedithiol (BuDT), respectively. All the depositions and ligand treatments were carried out in air using layer-by-layer spin-coating process. The fabrication of the active layers as well as the n-type zinc oxide (ZnO) layer was successfully carried out on the bendable indium-tin-oxide (ITO)-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, which implies that this technique can be applied to the fabrication of flexible and/or wearable solar cells. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the CQDSCs with the architecture of $PET/ITO/ZnO/PbS-MI_x/PbS-BuDT/MoO_x/Ag$ reached 4.2 %, which is significantly larger than that of the cells with single QD (PbS-BuDT) layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.249.1-249.1
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• 2015

Quantum dots (QDs) are attracting growing attention for photovoltaic device applications because of their unique electronic, optical and physical properties. Lead sulfide (PbS) QDs are one of the most widely studied materials for the devices and known to have size-tunable properties. In this context, we investigated the relationship between the size of PbS QDs and two synthesizing conditions, a concentration of ligand, oleic acid in this work, and injection temperature. The inverted colloidal quantum dot solar cells based on the heterojunction of n-type zinc oxide layer and p-type PbS QDs were also fabricated. The size of the QDs and cell properties were observed to depend on both the QD synthesizing conditions, and hence the overall efficiency of the cell could vary even though the size of QDs used was same. The QD synthesizing conditions were finally optimized for the maximum cell efficiency.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.413-413
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• 2012

Lead sulfide (PbS) Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are promising material for the photovoltaic device due to its various outstanding properties such as tunable band-gap, solution processability, and infrared absorption. More importantly, PbS CQDs have large exciton Bohr radius of 20 nm due to the uniquely large dielectric constants that result in the strong quantum confinement. To exploit desirable properties in photovoltaic device, it is essential to fabricate a device exhibiting stable performance. Unfortunately, the performance of PbS NQDs based Schottky solar cell is considerably degraded according to the exposure in the air. The air-exposed degradation originates on the oxidation of interface between PbS NQDS layer and metal electrode. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the stability of Schottky junction device by inserting a passivation layer. We investigate the effect of insertion of passivation layer on the performance of Schottky junction solar cells using PbS NQDs with band-gap of 1.3 eV. Schottky solar cell is the simple photovoltaic device with junction between semiconducting layer and metal electrode which a significant built-in-potential is established due to the workfunction difference between two materials. Although the device without passivation layer significantly degraded in several hours, considerable enhancement of stability can be obtained by inserting the very thin LiF layer (<1 nm) as a passivation layer. In this study, LiF layer is inserted between PbS NQDs layer and metal as an interface passivation layer. From the results, we can conclude that employment of very thin LiF layer is effective to enhance the stability of Schottky junction solar cells. We believe that this passivation layer is applicable not only to the PbS NQDs based solar cell, but also the various NQDs materials in order to enhance the stability of the device.