Semiconductor heterostructures form the cornerstone of many electronic and optoelectronic devices and are traditionally fabricated using epitaxial growth techniques. More recently, heterostructures have also been obtained by vertical stacking of two-dimensional crystals, such as graphene and related two-dimensional materials. These layered designer materials are held together by van der Waals f...

The organic-inorganic hybrid lead trihalide perovskites have been emerging as the most attractive photovoltaic materials. As regulated by Shockley-Queisser theory, a formidable materials science challenge for improvement to the next level requires further band-gap narrowing for broader absorption in solar spectrum, while retaining or even synergistically prolonging the carrier lifetime, a criti...

The energy market has destabilized with the increased economic development of emerging countries, owing to higher global energy demands and an increase in the cost of fossil fuels[1]. In addition, the seriousness of global environmental issues, such as the emission of greenhouse gases and the frequency of abnormal weather, has grown increasingly severe[2]. To resolve these issues, solar photovo...

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market is under developing stage with a relatively low number of installations worldwide. However, integrating photovoltaic technology into buildings is straight forward as no additional space is required and building materials are simply replaced by PV modules. Although BIPV is considered a promising technology, especially where land for large-scale PV p...

Solar energy offers a pollution free and sustainable means of harvesting energy directly from the sun. Considerable effort has been directed toward maximizing the efficiency of end-to-end solar systems, including the design of photovoltaic cells [15, 26], engineering new photovoltaic architectures and materials [24], and solar tracking systems [4]. Solar tracking is especially important for max...

Photovoltaic power supplied to the utility grid is gaining more and more visibility while the world’s powers demand is increases. Growing demand, advancements in semiconductor technology and magnetic materials such as high frequency inductor cores, has a significant impact on PV inverter topologies and their efficiencies, on the improvement of the control circuits on the potential of costs redu...

This paper describes a study carried out to investigate the capabilities of computer aided design software for the visualisation of building elevations and detail, with focus on the representation of photovoltaic cells in facade architecture. The development of photovoltaic (PV) technology, converting energy from sunlight into electricity, has resulted in the emergence of PV as a building mater...

Room-temperature photocurrent measurements in two-dimensional (2D) inorganic-organic perovskite devices reveal that excitons strongly contribute to the photocurrents despite possessing binding energies over 10 times larger than the thermal energies. The p-type (C6H9C2H4NH3)2PbI4 liberates photocarriers at metallic Schottky aluminum contacts, but incorporating electron- and hole-transport layers...

Solar power represents a vast resource which could, in principle, meet the world's needs for clean power generation. Recent growth in the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology has demonstrated the potential of solar power to deliver on a large scale. Whilst the dominant PV technology is based on crystalline silicon, a wide variety of alternative PV materials and device concepts have been explored...

Halogenoplumbate perovskites (MeNH3PbX3, where X is I and/or Br) have emerged as promising solar panel materials. Their limiting photovoltaic efficiency depends on charge localization and trapping processes that are presently insufficiently understood. We demonstrate that in halogenoplumbate materials the holes are trapped by organic cations (that deprotonate from their oxidized state) and Pb(2...