Physical aspects of ferroelectric semiconductors for photovoltaic solar energy conversion

Towards photoferroic materials by design: recent progress and perspectives

“…We would like to note that different methods have been proposed to estimate the efficiency of a PV device based on photoferroic materials [9,50,105]. Despite this, the maximum theoretical efficiency for emerging photoferroic materials is rarely available from the literature, due among other reasons to the complexity of the required calculations as well as of all the possible losses.…”

“…Thus when the thickness d becomes much larger than the screening length l s , the depolarization field becomes small. Model calculations of the depolarization field for a given set of dielectric constants and electrode screening length can be found in the literature [8,9]. The efficiency of charge separation is thus expected to be largest for thin ferroelectric films, which may limit the proportion of solar light absorbed.…”

Photovoltaic effect and photopolarization in Pb[(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.68<

“…These materials that exhibit (multi)ferroic order are particularly interesting, because they offer advanced electric operation that is related to multiple electric polarization switching states [2]. The field was rejuvenated after the discovery of the photovoltaic effect in the multiferroic BiFeO 3 [3,4], resulting in the revival of ferroelectric-based photovoltaic operation and related materials [5][6][7][8]. Based on recent progress in photovoltaic efficiency of Bi 2 FeCrO 6 films [9], ferroelectric (FE) cells might become competitors for conventional photovoltaics in the near future.…”

“…Such a study, however, requires high-quality crystals that are free from the surface/interface effects occurring in thin films [10] and the grain size dependence occurring in ceramics [11]. This task is challenging because the total number of currently known photovoltaicferroelectric compounds is well below 20 [5][6][7][8] [13]. Here, we find that the photovoltaic effect exists even in the widely available undoped Pb[(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 ) x Ti 1−x ]O 3 (PMN-32%PT) composition [14].…”

Larger photovoltaic effect and hysteretic photocarrier dynamics in Pb[(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.70Ti0.30]O3 crystal

“…One of the promising routes can be found in electrically polar materials where non-zero intrinsic electric field can replace p-n region of semiconducting photovoltaic cells with an ability to generate above bandgap photovoltages [3,4]. Indeed, electrically polar photovoltaic materials have gain renewed attention in photovoltaics [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and related multifunctionalities [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Although photovoltaic effect in non-centrosymetric crystals have long been known [22], renewed attention occurred after the discovery of photovoltaic effects in the multiferroic BiFeO 3 [23,24] with recent progress in photovoltaic efficiency of Bi 2 FeCrO 6 films, reporting a record value of 8.1% [25].…”