Oxides in Photovoltaics

Judith Driscoll

We are interested in oxides for solar cells, either as part of a cell with non-oxides, or for making up the whole cell. We have worked extensively on Cu2O based solar cells. We have also undertaken bandgap engineering of ZnO, for use in a variety of solar cells. The thin films have been grown by atmospheric-pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD). AP-SALD rapidly prints oxide thin films in open air: 100 nm ZnO can be grown in only 5 minutes. We have achieved the following results (some works in collaboration with the Optoelectronics Group in the Cavendish Lab.):

a) Achieved record open-circuit coltages (Voc) and efficiency improvements in colloidal quantum dot (QD) solar cells by discovering and reducing a new loss mechanism


Image: Bandgap engineering of Zn1-xMgxO n-type layer using with QDs to give record Voc

Adv. Energy Mater. 4(8) 1301544 (2014) DOI:10.1002/aenm.201301544

b) Increased the performance of open air fabricated Cu2O solar cells to record values. We used thermally oxidised Cu2O with atmospherically produced Zn1-xMgxO/Cu2O


Image: Record Light J-Vperformance in all-air processed, all oxide solar cells, and cross section structure of film

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 6(24), 22192-22198 (2014)  DOI:10.1021/am5058663

Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, 135, 43-48 (2015)  DOI:10.1016/j.solmat.2014.09.018

APL Mater., 3(2), 020901 (2015)  DOI:10.1063/1.4913442

c) Realised ultra sharp, colour-pure electroluminescence from organometal halide perovskite LEDs


Image: LED structure made using Zn1-xMgxO injector giving sharp emission

Adv. Mater., 27(8), 1414-1419 (2015) DOI:10.1002/adma.20140504

Part of research conducted in the Driscoll Group