High-efficiency
perovskite-based solar cells comprise sophisticated
stacks of materials which, however, often feature different thermal
expansion coefficients and are only weakly bonded at their interfaces.
This may raise concerns over delamination in such devices, jeopardizing
their long-term stability and commercial viability. Here, we investigate
the root causes of catastrophic top-contact delamination we observed
in state-of-the-art p-i-n perovskite/silicon tandem
solar cells. By combining macroscopic and microscopic analyses, we
identify the interface between the fullerene electron transport layer
and the tin oxide buffer layer at the origin of such delamination.
Specifically, we find that the perovskite morphology and its roughness
play a significant role in the microscopic adhesion of the top layers,
as well as the film processing conditions, particularly the deposition
temperature and the sputtering power. Our findings mandate the search
for new interfacial linking strategies to enable mechanically strong
perovskite-based solar cells, as required for commercialization.
Quantum cascade detectors (QCD) are unipolar infrared devices where the transport of the photo excited carriers takes place through confined electronic states, without an applied bias. In this photovoltaic mode, the detector's noise is not dominated by a dark shot noise process, therefore, performances are less degraded at high temperature with respect to photoconductive detectors. This work describes a 9 µm QCD embedded into a patchantenna metamaterial which operates with state-of-theart performances. The metamaterial gathers photons on a collection area, Acoll, much bigger than the geometrical area of the detector, improving the signal to noise ratio up to room temperature. The background-limited detectivity at 83 K is 5.5 x 10 10 cm Hz 1/2 W -1 , while at room temperature, the responsivity is 50 mA/W at 0 V bias. Patch antenna QCD is an ideal receiver for a heterodyne detection set-up, where a signal at a frequency 1.4 GHz and T=295 K is reported as first demonstration of uncooled 9µm photovoltaic receivers with GHz electrical bandwidth. These findings guide the research towards uncooled IR quantum limited detection.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.