Metamorphic buffers ~M-buffers! consisting of graded InAlAs or bulk InP were employed for the production of InP-based epiwafers on GaAs substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. The graded InAlAs is the standard for production metamorphic high electron mobility transistors ~M-HEMTs!, while the bulk InP offers superior thermal properties for higher current density circuits. The surface morphology an...

The energy-band alignments for zb-ZnSe(001)/a-Zn 3 P 2 (001), w-CdS(0001)/a-Zn 3 P 2 (001), and w-ZnO(0001)/a-Zn 3 P 2 (001) heterojunctions have been determined using high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy via the Kraut method. Ab initio hybrid density functional theory calculations of the valence-band density of states were used to determine the energy differences between the core l...

The fabrication of flexible organic photovoltaics (OPVs) which utilize transparent and conducting single walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) thin films as current collecting electrodes on plastic substrates in zinc oxide nanowire (ZnO NW)/poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices is reported. The bulk heterojunctions for exciton dissociation are created by directly growin...

We describe the spontaneous formation of composite chalcogenide materials that consist of two-dimensional (2D) materials dispersed in bulk and their unusual charge transport properties for application in hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs). When MoS2 as a representative 2D material is deposited on transition metals (such as Cu) in a controlled manner, the sulfidation reactions also occur with t...

Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) organic photovoltaic (OPV) promise low cost solar energy and have caused an explosive increase in investigations during the last decade. Control over the 3D morphology of BHJ blend films in various length scales is one of the pillars accounting for the significant advance of OPV performance recently. In this contribution, we focus on the strategy of incorporating an ad...

We investigate the internal quantum efficiencies (IQEs) of high efficiency poly-3-hexylthiophene:[6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) solar cells and find them to be lower at wavelengths where the PCBM absorbs. Because the exciton diffusion length in PCBM is too small, excitons generated in PCBM decay before reaching the donor-acceptor interface. This result has implications...

The performance of hybrid solar cells composed of polymer and ZnO is mainly hindered by the defects of ZnO. Here, we investigate the effects of ZnO nanoparticle surface modification with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) on the performance of bulk heterojunction hybrid solar cells based on poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and ZnO nanoparticles. The reference devic...