Antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) as a wide‐bandgap, nontoxic, and stable photovoltaic material reveals great potential for the uppermost cells in Si‐based tandem cell stacks. Sb2S3 solar cells with a compatible process, acceptable cost, and high efficiency therefore become the mandatory prerequisites to match silicon bottom cells. The performance of vacuum processed Sb2S3 device is pinned by bulk and interfacial recombination. Herein, a thermally treated TiO2 buffer layer induces quasiepitaxial growth of vertical orientation Sb2S3 absorber overcoming interface defects and absorber transport loss. Such novel growth could pronouncedly improve the open‐circuit voltage (Voc) due to the superior interface quality and intraribbon transport. The epitaxial rough Sb2S3 surface shows a texturized‐like morphology. It is optimized by tuning the grain sizes to form strong light trapping effect, which further enhances the short‐circuit current density (Jsc) with a 16% improvement. The final optimal device with high stability obtains a power conversion efficiency of 5.4%, which is the best efficiency for full‐inorganic Sb2S3 solar cells. The present developed quasiepitaxy strategy supports a superior interface, vertical orientation, and surface light trapping effect, which provides a new perspective for efficient noncubic material thin film solar cells.
Background: Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent disabilities. This study evaluated the neuroprotective effect of puerarin, a natural extract, in a rat model of SCI. Methods: Acute SCI models were established in rats using a modified Allen's method. Locomotor function was evaluated using the BBB test. The histological changes in the spinal cord were observed by H&E staining. Neuron survival and glial cells activation were evaluated by immunostaining. ELISA and realtime PCR were used to measure secretion and gene expression of cytokines. TUNEL staining was used to examine cell apoptosis and western blot analysis was used to detect protein expression. Results: Puerarin significantly increased BBB score in SCI rats, attenuated histological injury of spinal cord, decreased neuron loss, inhibited glial cells activation, alleviated inflammation, and inhibited cell apoptosis in the injured spinal cords. In addition, the downregulated PI3K and phospho-Akt protein expression were restored by puerarin. Conclusion: Puerarin accelerated locomotor function recovery and tissue repair of SCI rats, which is associated with its neuroprotection, glial cell activation suppression, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis effects. These effects may be associated with the activation of PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.
The detection of terahertz electromagnetic waves is crucial for emerging applications within this frequency band, such as spectroscopy, imaging, and communication. Extending the well-developed uncooled infrared focal plane array technology to terahertz frequency regime would be very attractive, but high absorption in the terahertz region with a subwavelength pixel is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a meander line nanoantenna (MLNA) absorber with a metal-insulator-metal structure for subwavelength terahertz absorption. 89% absorption is achieved at the wavelength of 155 μm with a 10 μm pitch size. The MLNA absorber is polarization insensitive and can maintain a high absorption when the incident angle is within 40°. We expect that the proposed MLNA absorber can be integrated with the small pixels of uncooled infrared focal plane array for terahertz detection.
Perfect absorbers with extremely high absorption are of crucial importance for many applications such as harvesting solar energy and eliminating stray light. A key point for their applications is ultralow photon escaping rate (PER) with easy fabrication process, which enables to maximize energy utilization or minimize the influence of stray light. An ultrathin perfect absorber (total thickness of 226 nm) is reported in this work with dielectric plasmonic nanocomposite (titanium nitride (TiN) embedded in aluminum nitride (AlN)) and antireflective coating (ARC). It can be fabricated by low‐cost one‐step sputtering approach in a very large area (200 × 200 mm2 for demonstration) on almost any substrates, including flexible polyethylene‐terephthalate. The average PER is only 0.4% in the whole visible range of 400–750 nm. As an example, the absorber is used in a laser scanning confocal microscope to eliminate the strong laser stray light and enhance the signal‐to‐noise ratio, which improves the clarity and contrast of imaging remarkably. It can not only match the requirement of harvesting solar energy, but also is suitable for stray light elimination of weak signal detection instruments, etc.
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