Nanoimprint-Transfer-Patterned Solids Enhance Light Absorption in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Younghoon Kim; Kristopher Bicanic; Hairen Tan; Olivier Ouellette; Brandon R. Sutherland; F. Pelayo García de Arquer; Jea Woong Jo; Mengxia Liu; Bin Sun; Min Liu; Sjoerd Hoogland; Edward H. Sargent

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241

Nanoimprint-Transfer-Patterned Solids Enhance Light Absorption in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells

Younghoon Kim, Kristopher Bicanic, Hairen Tan, Olivier Ouellette, Brandon R. Sutherland, F. Pelayo García de Arquer, Jea Woong Jo, Mengxia Liu, Bin Sun, Min Liu, Sjoerd Hoogland, Edward H. Sargent

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

46 Scopus citations

Abstract

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) materials are of interest in thin-film solar cells due to their size-tunable bandgap and low-cost solution-processing. However, CQD solar cells suffer from inefficient charge extraction over the film thicknesses required for complete absorption of solar light. Here we show a new strategy to enhance light absorption in CQD solar cells by nanostructuring the CQD film itself at the back interface. We use two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to study quantitatively the light absorption enhancement in nanostructured back interfaces in CQD solar cells. We implement this experimentally by demonstrating a nanoimprint-transfer-patterning (NTP) process for the fabrication of nanostructured CQD solids with highly ordered patterns. We show that this approach enables a boost in the power conversion efficiency in CQD solar cells primarily due to an increase in short-circuit current density as a result of enhanced absorption through light-trapping.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2349-2353
Number of pages	5
Journal	Nano Letters
Volume	17
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241
State	Published - Mar 16 2017
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-11-009-21
Acknowledgements: This publication was based in part on work supported by Award KUS-11-009-21, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), by the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence Program, and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. H.T. acknowledges The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for a Rubicon Grant (680-50-1511) to support his postdoctoral research at University of Toronto. This work was also carried out under Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) project NPRP-8-086-1-017. The authors thank L. Levina, R. Wolowiec, D. Kopilovic, and E. Palmiano for their technical help over the course of this research. O.O. received financial support from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241

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@article{fbd1a785415c4b5d8a0600f26e63f496,

title = "Nanoimprint-Transfer-Patterned Solids Enhance Light Absorption in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells",

abstract = "Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) materials are of interest in thin-film solar cells due to their size-tunable bandgap and low-cost solution-processing. However, CQD solar cells suffer from inefficient charge extraction over the film thicknesses required for complete absorption of solar light. Here we show a new strategy to enhance light absorption in CQD solar cells by nanostructuring the CQD film itself at the back interface. We use two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to study quantitatively the light absorption enhancement in nanostructured back interfaces in CQD solar cells. We implement this experimentally by demonstrating a nanoimprint-transfer-patterning (NTP) process for the fabrication of nanostructured CQD solids with highly ordered patterns. We show that this approach enables a boost in the power conversion efficiency in CQD solar cells primarily due to an increase in short-circuit current density as a result of enhanced absorption through light-trapping.",

author = "Younghoon Kim and Kristopher Bicanic and Hairen Tan and Olivier Ouellette and Sutherland, {Brandon R.} and {Garc{\'i}a de Arquer}, {F. Pelayo} and Jo, {Jea Woong} and Mengxia Liu and Bin Sun and Min Liu and Sjoerd Hoogland and Sargent, {Edward H.}",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-11-009-21 Acknowledgements: This publication was based in part on work supported by Award KUS-11-009-21, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), by the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence Program, and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. H.T. acknowledges The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for a Rubicon Grant (680-50-1511) to support his postdoctoral research at University of Toronto. This work was also carried out under Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) project NPRP-8-086-1-017. The authors thank L. Levina, R. Wolowiec, D. Kopilovic, and E. Palmiano for their technical help over the course of this research. O.O. received financial support from the Fonds de Recherche du Qu{\'e}bec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT). This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.",

year = "2017",

month = mar,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "17",

pages = "2349--2353",

journal = "Nano Letters",

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T1 - Nanoimprint-Transfer-Patterned Solids Enhance Light Absorption in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells

AU - Kim, Younghoon

AU - Bicanic, Kristopher

AU - Tan, Hairen

AU - Ouellette, Olivier

AU - Sutherland, Brandon R.

AU - García de Arquer, F. Pelayo

AU - Jo, Jea Woong

AU - Liu, Mengxia

AU - Sun, Bin

AU - Liu, Min

AU - Hoogland, Sjoerd

AU - Sargent, Edward H.

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUS-11-009-21 Acknowledgements: This publication was based in part on work supported by Award KUS-11-009-21, made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), by the Ontario Research Fund - Research Excellence Program, and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. H.T. acknowledges The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for a Rubicon Grant (680-50-1511) to support his postdoctoral research at University of Toronto. This work was also carried out under Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) project NPRP-8-086-1-017. The authors thank L. Levina, R. Wolowiec, D. Kopilovic, and E. Palmiano for their technical help over the course of this research. O.O. received financial support from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT). This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

PY - 2017/3/16

Y1 - 2017/3/16

N2 - Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) materials are of interest in thin-film solar cells due to their size-tunable bandgap and low-cost solution-processing. However, CQD solar cells suffer from inefficient charge extraction over the film thicknesses required for complete absorption of solar light. Here we show a new strategy to enhance light absorption in CQD solar cells by nanostructuring the CQD film itself at the back interface. We use two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to study quantitatively the light absorption enhancement in nanostructured back interfaces in CQD solar cells. We implement this experimentally by demonstrating a nanoimprint-transfer-patterning (NTP) process for the fabrication of nanostructured CQD solids with highly ordered patterns. We show that this approach enables a boost in the power conversion efficiency in CQD solar cells primarily due to an increase in short-circuit current density as a result of enhanced absorption through light-trapping.

AB - Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) materials are of interest in thin-film solar cells due to their size-tunable bandgap and low-cost solution-processing. However, CQD solar cells suffer from inefficient charge extraction over the film thicknesses required for complete absorption of solar light. Here we show a new strategy to enhance light absorption in CQD solar cells by nanostructuring the CQD film itself at the back interface. We use two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations to study quantitatively the light absorption enhancement in nanostructured back interfaces in CQD solar cells. We implement this experimentally by demonstrating a nanoimprint-transfer-patterning (NTP) process for the fabrication of nanostructured CQD solids with highly ordered patterns. We show that this approach enables a boost in the power conversion efficiency in CQD solar cells primarily due to an increase in short-circuit current density as a result of enhanced absorption through light-trapping.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/626717

UR - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017539298&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241

DO - 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b05241

M3 - Article

SN - 1530-6984

VL - 17

SP - 2349

EP - 2353

JO - Nano Letters

JF - Nano Letters

IS - 4

ER -

Nanoimprint-Transfer-Patterned Solids Enhance Light Absorption in Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells

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