Rare‐Earth Ion Doped Up‐Conversion Materials for Photovoltaic Applications

Wang, Haiqiao; Batentschuk, Miroslaw; Osvet, Andres; Pinna, Luigi; Brabec, Christoph J.

doi:10.1002/adma.201100511

Cited by 494 publications

(270 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…An essential aspect in the development of new upconversion approaches and materials for harvesting lowenergy solar photons is their ability to work directly under sunlight and upconvert low-energy photons to high-energy ones 2,6,7,13,14,[18][19][20]39 . We therefore further demonstrated the feasibility of our thermal radiation-based approach towards sunlight.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, to the best of our knowledge, under continuous wave excitation, the highest power upconversion efficiency, defined as the output power of higherenergy photons divided by the input power of stimulating photons, is 12.7% (8.3% quantum yield) 14 . Intensive efforts are currently being made to synthesize upconversion materials with increasing power upconversion efficiencies 2,7,[14][15][16][17][18][19] . In addition, there have been two recent studies with pulsed laser sources employed for excitation 20,21 , where the excitation power densities in each pulse are much higher than the corresponding timeaveraged excitation power densities.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Photon energy upconversion through thermal radiation with the power efficiency reaching 16%

et al. 2014

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The efficiency of many solar energy conversion technologies is limited by their poor response to low-energy solar photons. One way for overcoming this limitation is to develop materials and methods that can efficiently convert low-energy photons into high-energy ones. Here we show that thermal radiation is an attractive route for photon energy upconversion, with efficiencies higher than those of state-of-the-art energy transfer upconversion under continuous wave laser excitation. A maximal power upconversion efficiency of 16% is achieved on Yb 3 þ -doped ZrO 2 . By examining various oxide samples doped with lanthanide or transition metal ions, we draw guidelines that materials with high melting points, low thermal conductivities and strong absorption to infrared light deliver high upconversion efficiencies. The feasibility of our upconversion approach is further demonstrated under concentrated sunlight excitation and continuous wave 976-nm laser excitation, where the upconverted white light is absorbed by Si solar cells to generate electricity and drive optical and electrical devices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Photon energy upconversion through thermal radiation with the power efficiency reaching 16%

et al. 2014

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“…Near-IR light is used to manipulate the stored charges in the flash memory for the multilevel data storage. The active layer materials are nanocomposites composed of Er 3 þ , Yb 3 þ codoped sodium yttrium fluoride (NaYF 4 ) nanocrystals, which is one of the most promising and effective IR-to-visible UC materials 42 blended with poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) semiconducting polymer. Undoped NaYF 4 shell is deposited on the surface of NaYF 4 :Yb,Er nanoparticles to enhance the emission intensity.…”

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confidence: 99%

An upconverted photonic nonvolatile memory

et al. 2014

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Conventional flash memory devices are voltage driven and found to be unsafe for confidential data storage. To ensure the security of the stored data, there is a strong demand for developing novel nonvolatile memory technology for data encryption. Here we show a photonic flash memory device, based on upconversion nanocrystals, which is light driven with a particular narrow width of wavelength in addition to voltage bias. With the help of near-infrared light, we successfully manipulate the multilevel data storage of the flash memory device. These upconverted photonic flash memory devices exhibit high ON/OFF ratio, long retention time and excellent rewritable characteristics.

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“…There has been a great deal of research activity on applying UC to address the subbandgap energy losses and improve solar cell efficiency (see for example [109][110][111]). Although various material combinations have experimentally demonstrated UC under laboratory conditions, external QE remain of the order of 1-2% while so far there has been no reported increase in cell efficiency under AM1.5 solar conditions [112]. Significant progress is still needed before UC will find application in commercial solar cells or for photosynthetic biomass enhancement.…”

Section: Up-conversion (Uc)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectral light management for solar energy conversion systems

2016

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Due to the inherent broadband nature of the solar radiation, combined with the narrow spectral sensitivity range of direct solar to electricity devices, there is a massive opportunity to manipulate the solar spectrum to increase the functionality and efficiency of solar energy conversion devices. Spectral splitting or manipulation facilitates the efficient combination of both high-temperature solar thermal systems, which can absorb over the entire solar spectrum to create heat, and photovoltaic cells, which only convert a range of wavelengths to electricity. It has only recently been possible, with the development of nanofabrication techniques, to integrate micro-and nano-photonic structures as spectrum splitters/manipulators into solar energy conversion devices. In this paper, we summarize the recent developments in beam splitting techniques, and highlight some relevant applications including combined PV-thermal collectors and efficient algae production, and suggest paths for future development in this field.

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Rare‐Earth Ion Doped Up‐Conversion Materials for Photovoltaic Applications

Cited by 494 publications

References 47 publications

Photon energy upconversion through thermal radiation with the power efficiency reaching 16%

Photon energy upconversion through thermal radiation with the power efficiency reaching 16%

An upconverted photonic nonvolatile memory

Spectral light management for solar energy conversion systems

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