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Title: Design principles for shift current photovoltaics

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14176· OSTI ID:1413717
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  3. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering; Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

While the basic principles of conventional solar cells are well understood, little attention has gone towards maximizing the efficiency of photovoltaic devices based on shift currents. Furthermore, by analysing effective models, here we outline simple design principles for the optimization of shift currents for frequencies near the band gap. This method allows us to express the band edge shift current in terms of a few model parameters and to show it depends explicitly on wavefunctions in addition to standard band structure. We use our approach to identify two classes of shift current photovoltaics, ferroelectric polymer films and single-layer orthorhombic monochalcogenides such as GeS, which display the largest band edge responsivities reported so far. Moreover, exploring the parameter space of the tight-binding models that describe them we find photoresponsivities that can exceed 100 mA W -1 . Our results illustrate the great potential of shift current photovoltaics to compete with conventional solar cells.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1206515
OSTI ID:
1413717
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 8; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 193 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Saddle-Point Excitons and Their Extraordinary Light Absorption in 2D β-Phase Group-IV Monochalcogenides journal October 2018
High‐Order Shift Current Induced Terahertz Emission from Inorganic Cesium Bromine Lead Perovskite Engendered by Two‐Photon Absorption journal August 2019
Concept of Quantum Geometry in Optoelectronic Processes in Solids: Application to Solar Cells journal March 2017
Research Direction toward Scalable, Stable, and High Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells journal April 2020
Strain-Tunable Electronic and Optical Properties of Monolayer Germanium Monosulfide: Ab-Initio Study journal February 2019
Towards properties on demand in quantum materials journal October 2017
Shift current photovoltaic effect in a ferroelectric charge-transfer complex journal August 2017
Switchable magnetic bulk photovoltaic effect in the two-dimensional magnet CrI3 journal August 2019
Robust edge photocurrent response on layered type II Weyl semimetal WTe2 journal December 2019
Colossal mid-infrared bulk photovoltaic effect in a type-I Weyl semimetal journal March 2019
Enhanced intrinsic photovoltaic effect in tungsten disulfide nanotubes journal June 2019
Nonreciprocal current from electron interactions in noncentrosymmetric crystals: roles of time reversal symmetry and dissipation journal February 2018
Monolayer GeS as a potential candidate for NO 2 gas sensors and capturers journal January 2018
Luminescence of defects in the structural transformation of layered tin dichalcogenides journal December 2017
Systematic investigation of electrical contact barriers between different electrode metals and layered GeSe journal January 2019
Impact of electrodes on the extraction of shift current from a ferroelectric semiconductor SbSI journal December 2018
Ultrafast spectroscopy of shift-current in ferroelectric semiconductor Sn 2 P 2 S 6 journal April 2019
Spectral dynamics of shift current in ferroelectric semiconductor SbSI journal January 2019
Modulation of magnetism in transition-metal-doped two-dimensional GeS journal May 2018
Stability and magnetic properties of SnSe monolayer doped by transition metal atom (Mn, Fe, and Co): a first-principles study journal May 2018
Spatio-temporal dynamics of shift current quantum pumping by femtosecond light pulse journal March 2019
Direct observation of shift and ballistic photovoltaic currents journal January 2019
A Ferroelectric-Photovoltaic Effect in SbSI Nanowires journal April 2019
Quantitative relationship between polarization differences and the zone-averaged shift photocurrent text January 2017
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Spatio-temporal dynamics of shift current quantum pumping by femtosecond light pulse text January 2018
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Impact of electrodes on the extraction of shift current from a ferroelectric semiconductor SbSI text January 2018
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Strong bulk photovoltaic effect and second-harmonic generation in two-dimensional selenium and tellurium text January 2020