Thesis Proposal: Yida Lin
Title: Extending the potential of thin-film optoelectronics via optical and photonic engineering
Project summary: Thin-film optoelectronics using solution-processed materials have become a strong research focus in recent decades. These technologies have demonstrated convenience and versatility, due to their solution-processed nature, in a wide range of applications such as solar power harvesting, photodetection, light emitting devices and even lasing. Some of the variants of these materials also enabled and dominate the field of flexible electronics, especially for display technologies, achieving large-scale industrialization and commercialization years ago specifically in applications where their conventional counterparts – bulk semiconductors – are limited. The development of optoelectronics applications using organic materials, colloidal quantum dots, perovskites, etc., has been made possible by research progress in materials and chemical engineering of the active material itself, as well as in optical and photonic engineering in the device architecture and related structures. The focus of this project is mainly on the latter set of approaches applied to lead chalcogenide-based colloidal quantum dot thin films.
Colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are a type of semiconductor material in the form of nanocrystals (1-10 nm in diameter) of the corresponding bulk material. The spatial confinement of electrons and holes leads to significantly reconstructed energy band structures. Usually this manifests as a series of discrete energy levels above or below the corresponding bulk conduction and valence band edges, instead of the corresponding semi-continuum of states observed in bulk semiconductors. The spacings between the discrete energy levels are highly dependent on the size of the quantum dots, which at the same time determines the properties of optical transitions responsible for absorption (Figure 1b), modulation of the refractive index, etc. In this sense, CQDs are considered “tunable” by controlling the ensemble so that it predominantly consisting CQDs of one desired shape and size.
CQDs are solution-processed materials. The processing of CQDs starts from synthesis using solutions containing metal-organic precursors. The controlled growth of nanocrystals results in a dispersion of pristine CQDs in certain solvents. After that, the CQDs are purified and chemically treated to modify their surface ligands, through a series of precipitation, redispersion, phase transfer and concentration steps. The deposition of films of CQDs onto desired substrates is achieved by solution-compatible techniques such as spin-casting, blade coating and screen printing. A functional CQD film is usually 10-500 nm thick depending on its application and is usually preceded and/or succeeded by the deposition of other electronically functional device layers.
Lead sulfide (PbS) CQDs are widely used for applications involving solar photon absorption and resulting energy conversion. In the example of a CQD solar cell, PbS CQDs with effective band gaps of 1.3 eV are chosen as the active material. The full device utilizes a p-n or p-i-n structure, and a typical device architecture consists of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode layer, an electron transport layer (ETL), the absorbing PbS CQD film, a hole transport layer (HTL) and metal top electrode. Similar structures are also used in photodetectors and light emitting diodes, with critical layers substituted.
For the first section of the project, we studied and exploited the color reproduction capabilities using reflective interference from CQD solar cells, while maintaining high photon absorption and current generation. The second section is aimed at exploring the possibility of simultaneously controlling the spectral reflection, transmission and absorption of thin film optoelectronics using embedded photonic crystal structures in CQD films and other highly absorptive materials. In the third section, we devised and built a 2D multi-modal scanning characterization system for spatial mapping of photoluminescence (PL), transient photocurrent and transient photovoltage from a realistically large device area with micron-resolution. The last section of the project focuses on economical and scalable solar concentration solutions for CQD and other thin film solar cells.
We mostly limit our discussion and demonstration to PbS CQD solar cells within the
scope of this proposal; however, it is worth pointing out that the techniques and
principles described below could be applied to most optoelectronic materials that share
the solution-compatible deposition and processing procedures.
