In recent years, rare-earth metals with triply oxidized state, lanthanide ions (Ln3+), have been demonstrated as dopants, which can efficiently improve the optical and electronic properties of metal halide perovskite materials. On the one hand, doping Ln3+ ions can convert near-infrared/ultraviolet light into visible light through the process of up-/down-conversion and then the absorption efficiency of solar spectrum by perovskite solar cells can be significantly increased, leading to high device power conversion efficiency. On the other hand, multi-color light emissions and white light emissions originated from perovskite nanocrystals can be realized via inserting Ln3+ ions into the perovskite crystal lattice, which functioned as quantum cutting. In addition, doping or co-doping Ln3+ ions in perovskite films or devices can effectively facilitate perovskite film growth, tailor the energy band alignment and passivate the defect states, resulting in improved charge carrier transport efficiency or reduced nonradiative recombination. Finally, Ln3+ ions have also been used in the fields of photodetectors and luminescent solar concentrators. These indicate the huge potential of rare-earth metals in improving the perovskite optoelectronic device performances.
Ferrimagnetic insulators (FMIs) have abundant advantages for the application in spintronic devices, which have attracted intensive studies. However, in most previous studies on heavy metal (HM)/FMI bilayers, the FMI layers are deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD), and the HM layers are deposited by magnetron sputtering. This will cause the interfacial contamination due to the inevitable vacuum breaking, and then significantly affect the spin‐orbit torque (SOT) generation and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI) in the HM/FMI bilayers. In this work, the SOT and DMI in the HM/FMI bilayers deposited by magnetron sputtering without vacuum breaking are studied. The successful fabrication of the Tm3Fe5O12 (TmIG) layer, a typical FMI, with good crystallinity and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) by magnetron sputtering is first demonstrated. Then by systematically varying the TmIG thickness, the SOT and DMI in the Pt/TmIG bilayers are studied. It is shown that the effective spin Hall angle in the Pt/TmIG bilayers is much larger than most previously reported values. It is further demonstrated that the DMI constant scales linearly with the inverse of the TmIG thickness, indicating the interfacial origin of the DMI. The study provides a piece of information for the basic understandings of the SOT and DMI in the HM/FMI bilayers.
The electron transport layer (ETL) with excellent charge extraction and transport ability is one of the key components of high-performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs). SnO2 has been considered as a more promising ETL for the future commercialization of PSCs due to its excellent photoelectric properties and easy processing. Herein, we propose a facile and effective ETL modification strategy based on the incorporation of methylenediammonium dichloride (MDACl2) into the SnO2 precursor colloidal solution. The effects of MDACl2 incorporation on charge transport, defect passivation, perovskite crystallization, and PSC performance are systematically investigated. First, the surface defects of the SnO2 film are effectively passivated, resulting in the increased conductivity of the SnO2 film, which is conducive to electron extraction and transport. Second, the MDACl2 modification contributes to the formation of high-quality perovskite films with improved crystallinity and reduced defect density. Furthermore, a more suitable energy level alignment is achieved at the ETL/perovskite interface, which facilitates the charge transport due to the lower energy barrier. Consequently, the MDACl2-modified PSCs exhibit a champion efficiency of 22.30% compared with 19.62% of the control device, and the device stability is also significantly improved.
Regular patterns can form spontaneously in chemical reaction-diffusion systems under non-equilibrium conditions as proposed by Alan Turing. Here, we found that regular patterns can be generated in uphill-diffusion solution systems without a chemical reaction process through both in-situ and ex-situ observations. Organic semiconductor solution is confined between two parallel plates with controlled micron/submicron-meter distance to minimize convection of the liquid and avoid spinodal precipitation at equilibrium. The solvent evaporation concentrates the solution gradually into an oversaturated non-equilibrium condition, under which a phase-transition occurs and ordered concentration-waves are generated. By proper tuning of the experimental parameter, multiple regular patterns with micro/nano-meter scaled features (line, square-grid, zig-zag, and fence-like patterns etc.) were observed. We explain the observed phenomenon as Turing-pattern generation resulted from uphill-diffusion and solution oversaturation. The generated patterns in the solutions can be condensed onto substrates to form structured micro/nanomaterials. We have fabricated organic semiconductor devices with such patterned materials to demonstrate the potential applications. Our observation may serve as a milestone in the progress towards a fundamental understanding of pattern formation in nature, like in biosystem, and pave a new avenue in developing self-assembling techniques of micro/nano structured materials.
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