Germanium nanoparticles with non-diamond core structures for solar energy conversion

Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) in nanoparticle-based solar cells promises to increase the cell-efficiency above the Shockley-Queisser limit. However, utilizing MEG is hampered by the Quantum Confinement Dilemma (QCD): quantum confinement advantageously increases the effective Coulomb interaction,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2014-07, Vol.2 (25), p.9820-9827
Main Authors: Voros, Marton, Wippermann, Stefan, Somogyi, Balint, Gali, Adam, Rocca, Dario, Galli, Giulia, Zimanyi, Gergely T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical Sciences
Cristallography
Diamonds
Germanium
Nanoparticles
Phases
Photovoltaic cells
Quantum confinement
Solar cells
Sustainability
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Summary:Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) in nanoparticle-based solar cells promises to increase the cell-efficiency above the Shockley-Queisser limit. However, utilizing MEG is hampered by the Quantum Confinement Dilemma (QCD): quantum confinement advantageously increases the effective Coulomb interaction, but at the same time disadvantageously increases the electronic gap. Using ab initiocalculations we showed that germanium nanoparticles with core structures of high pressure phases of bulk Ge can transcend the QCD, by simultaneously lowering gaps and increasing the MEG rates above those of NPs with a cubic diamond core. Synthesis routes to obtain Ge colloidal ST12 core structures are available and hence we propose that exploring ST12 Ge NPs for MEG solar cells is a promising research effort.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/c4ta01543f