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Bandgap tuning of multiferroic oxide solar cells

Nature Photonics volume 9, pages 61–67 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Multiferroic films are increasingly being studied for applications in solar energy conversion because of their efficient ferroelectric polarization-driven carrier separation and above-bandgap generated photovoltages, which in principle can lead to energy conversion efficiencies beyond the maximum value (∼34%) reported in traditional silicon-based bipolar heterojunction solar cells. However, the efficiency reported so far is still too low (<2%) to be considered for commercialization. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to effectively tune the bandgap of double perovskite multiferroic oxides by engineering the cationic ordering for the case of Bi2FeCrO6. Using this approach, we report a power conversion efficiency of 8.1% under AM 1.5 G irradiation (100 mW cm−2) for Bi2FeCrO6 thin-film solar cells in a multilayer configuration.

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Figure 1: Structural ordering and optical absorption.
Figure 2: Effect of cationic ordering on absorption and FE properties.
Figure 3: Single-layer device layout and PV properties.
Figure 4: Optimization of the PV properties of multilayer heterostructure-based devices.
Figure 5: Multilayer properties and device performance.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, which funded the facilities for materials deposition and characterization as well as device fabrication and testing. F.R. is grateful to the Canada Research Chairs Program for partial salary support. F.R. is supported by Discovery (NSERC) and FQRNT team grants. This work was partly funded by an international collaboration grant (MDEIE) with the European Network WIROX. F.R. acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a F.W. Bessel Award. F.R. is grateful to Elsevier for a grant from Applied Surface Science. R.N. is grateful to NSERC for a personal postdoctoral fellowship for partial salary support. S.L. thanks FRQNT and CSC for salary support. L.C. acknowledges partial salary support through a personal fellowship from FRQS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NAST Center & Department of Chemical Science & Technology, University of Rome Tor Vergata Via della Ricerca Sceintifica, Rome, 00133, Italy

    R. Nechache

  2. INRS—Centre Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications, Boulevard Lionel-Boulet, Varennes, Québec, J3X 1S2, Canada

    R. Nechache, C. Harnagea, S. Li, L. Cardenas, W. Huang, J. Chakrabartty & F. Rosei

  3. Center for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures, McGill University, Quebec, H3A 2K6 Montreal, Canada

    F. Rosei

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Contributions

R.N. designed the materials and device optimization strategy. R.N., S.L. and J.C. fabricated and characterized the structural, composition, FE and photovoltaic properties of the films. R.N. and L.C. performed UPS analysis. R.N., W.H. and S.L. carried out the NSTO deposition and electrical and optical measurements for the devices. R.N. and C.H. designed the piezoresponse force microscopy experiments and supervised the analysis of the results and their interpretation. R.N., C.H. and F.R. co-wrote the paper. F.R. supervised the work.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to R. Nechache or F. Rosei.

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Competing interests

R.N. and F.R. declare that a US patent related to the PV properties of BFCO films was filed in 2011 under reference 13/162,186.

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Nechache, R., Harnagea, C., Li, S. et al. Bandgap tuning of multiferroic oxide solar cells. Nature Photon 9, 61–67 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.255

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