The photocurrent in bilayer polymer photovoltaic cells is dominated by the exciton dissociation efficiency at donor/acceptor interface. An analytical model is developed for the photocurrent-voltage characteristics of the bilayer polymer/TiO2 photovoltaic cells. The model gives an analytical expression for the exciton dissociation efficiency at the interface, and explains the dependence of the p...

We report on the contribution of effects at the organic semiconductor-metal interfaces to dark current and to transient and continuous wave cw photocurrent in high-performance functionalized anthradithiophene ADT films deposited from solution on glass substrates with gold Au and aluminum Al electrodes. In all samples, fast sub-30 ps charge carrier photogeneration was observed under photoexcitat...

Films based on electrostatic interactions between tetracationic porphyrin and Dawson type polyoxometalate are formed by the so called layer-by-layer method. Their photovoltaic performances are investigated by photocurrent transient measurements which showed significant photocurrent response.

An experimental study over the optical response of thin MoS2 films grownby chemical bath deposition (CBD) method is presented. As two important factors, theeffect of bath temperature and growth time are considered on the photocurrentgeneration in the grown samples. The results show that increasing the growth time leadsto better optical response and higher difference betw...

We study photocurrent generation in individual suspended carbon nanotube p-n junctions using spectrally resolved scanning photocurrent microscopy. Spatial maps of the photocurrent allow us to determine the length of the p-n junction intrinsic region, as well as the role of the n-type Schottky barrier. We show that reverse-bias operation eliminates complications caused by the n-type Schottky bar...

The large photocurrent hysteresis observed in many organometal trihalide perovskite solar cells has become a major hindrance impairing the ultimate performance and stability of these devices, while its origin was unknown. Here we demonstrate the trap states on the surface and grain boundaries of the perovskite materials to be the origin of photocurrent hysteresis and that the fullerene layers d...

We report a scanning photocurrent microscopy (SPCM) study of colloidal lead selenide (PbSe) quantum dot (QD) thin film field-effect transistors (FETs). PbSe QDs are chemically treated with sodium sulfide (Na2S) and coated with amorphous alumina (a-Al2O3) by atomic layer deposition (ALD) to obtain high mobility, air-stable FETs with a strongly gate-dependent conductivity. SPCM reveals a long pho...

Experimental characterization and finite-element numerical simulations of the electromagnetic interaction between random or periodic Au nanodot arrays patterned atop a silicon-on-insulator SOI photodetector and incident electromagnetic plane waves have been performed at wavelengths of 400–1100 nm. The presence of the Au nanodots is found to lead to increased electromagnetic field amplitude with...

In recent photovoltaic research, nanomaterials have offered two new approaches for trapping light within solar cells to increase their absorption: nanostructuring the absorbing semiconductor and using metallic nanostructures to couple light into the absorbing layer. This work combines these two approaches by decorating a single-nanowire silicon solar cell with an octahedral silver nanocrystal. ...

We report the observation of a large enhancement of the wavelength-dependent photocurrent in ultrathin silicon nanomembranes (SiNM) decorated with colloidal CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal quantum dots (NQDs). Back-gated, field-effect transistor structures based on 75 nm-thick SiNMs are functionalized with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) preventing surface oxidation and minimizing the surface defect dens...