Role of self-assembled molecules’anchoring groups for surface defect passivation and dipole modulation in inverted perovskite solar cells

Inverted perovskite solar cells have gained prominence in industrial advancement due to their easy fabrication,low hysteresis effects,and high stability.Despite these advantages,their efficiency is currently limited by excessive defects and poor carrier transport at the perovskite-electrode interface,particularly at the buried interface between the perovskite and transparent conductive oxide(TCO).Recent efforts in the perovskite community have focused on designing novel self-assembled molecules(SAMs)to improve the quality of the buried interface.However,a notable gap remains in understanding the regulation of atomic-scale interfacial properties of SAMs between the perovskite and TCO interfaces.This understanding is crucial,particularly in terms of identifying chemically active anchoring groups.In this study,we used the star SAM([2-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)ethyl]phosphonic acid)as the base structure to investigate the defect passivation effects of eight common anchoring groups at the perovskite-TCO interface.Our findings indicate that the phosphonic and boric acid groups exhibit notable advantages.These groups fulfill three key criteria:they provide the greatest potential for defect passivation,exhibit stable adsorption with defects,and exert significant regulatory effects on interface dipoles.Ionized anchoring groups exhibit enhanced passivation capabilities for defect energy levels due to their superior Lewis base properties,which effectively neutralize local charges near defects.Among various defect types,iodine vacancies are the easiest to passivate,whereas iodine-substituted lead defects are the most challenging to passivate.Our study provides comprehensive theoretical insights and inspiration for the design of anchoring groups in SAMs,contributing to the ongoing development of more efficient inverted perovskite solar cells.

High-throughput computational material screening of the cycloalkane-based two-dimensional Dion–Jacobson halide perovskites for optoelectronics

Two-dimensional(2D) layered perovskites have emerged as potential alternates to traditional three-dimensional(3D)analogs to solve the stability issue of perovskite solar cells. In recent years, many efforts have been spent on manipulating the interlayer organic spacing cation to improve the photovoltaic properties of Dion–Jacobson(DJ) perovskites. In this work, a serious of cycloalkane(CA) molecules were selected as the organic spacing cation in 2D DJ perovskites, which can widely manipulate the optoelectronic properties of the DJ perovskites. The underlying relationship between the CA interlayer molecules and the crystal structures, thermodynamic stabilities, and electronic properties of 58 DJ perovskites has been investigated by using automatic high-throughput workflow cooperated with density-functional(DFT) calculations.We found that these CA-based DJ perovskites are all thermodynamic stable. The sizes of the cycloalkane molecules can influence the degree of inorganic framework distortion and further tune the bandgaps with a wide range of 0.9–2.1 eV.These findings indicate the cycloalkane molecules are suitable as spacing cation in 2D DJ perovskites and provide a useful guidance in designing novel 2D DJ perovskites for optoelectronic applications.

JAMIP:an artificial-intelligence aided data-driven infrastructure for computational materials informatics

Materials informatics has emerged as a promisingly new paradigm for accelerating materials discovery and design.It exploits the intelligent power of machine learning methods in massive materials data from experiments or simulations to seek new materials,functionality,and principles,etc.Developing specialized facilities to generate,collect,manage,learn,and mine large-scale materials data is crucial to materials informatics.We herein developed an artificial-intelligence-aided data-driven infrastructure named Jilin Artificial-intelligence aided Materials-design Integrated Package(JAMIP),which is an open-source Python framework to meet the research requirements of computational materials informatics.It is integrated by materials production factory,high-throughput first-principles calculations engine,automatic tasks submission and monitoring progress,data extraction,management and storage system,and artificial intelligence machine learning based data mining functions.We have integrated specific features such as an inorganic crystal structure prototype database to facilitate high-throughput calculations and essential modules associated with machine learning studies of functional materials.We demonstrated how our developed code is useful in exploring materials informatics of optoelectronic semiconductors by taking halide perovskites as typical case.By obeying the principles of automation,extensibility,reliability,and intelligence,the JAMIP code is a promisingly powerful tool contributing to the fast-growing field of computational materials informatics.

First-principle high-throughput calculations of carrier effective masses of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides

Two-dimensional group-VIB transition metal dichalcogenides（with the formula of MX2） emerge as a family of intensely investigated semiconductors that are promising for both electronic（because of their reasonable carrier mobility） and optoelectronic（because of their direct band gap at monolayer thickness） applications. Effective mass is a crucial physical quantity determining carriers transport, and thus the performance of these applications. Here we present based on first-principles high-throughput calculations a computational study of carrier effective masses of the two-dimensional MX2 materials. Both electron and hole effective masses of different MX2（M = Mo, W and X = S, Se, Te）, including in-layer/out-of-layer components, thickness dependence, and magnitude variation in heterostructures, are systemically calculated. The numerical results, chemical trends, and the insights gained provide useful guidance for understanding the key factors controlling carrier effective masses in the MX2 system and further engineering the mass values to improve device performance.

Halide Homogenization for High-Performance Blue Perovskite Electroluminescence

Metal halide perovskite light-emitting diodes(LEDs)have achieved great progress in recent years.However,bright and spectrally stable blue perovskite LED remains a significant challenge.Three-dimensional mixed-halide perovskites have potential to achieve high brightness electroluminescence,but their emission spectra are unstable as a result of halide phase separation.Here,we reveal that there is already heterogeneous distribution of halides in the as-deposited perovskite films,which can trace back to the nonuniform mixture of halides in the precursors.By simply introducing cationic surfactants to improve the homogeneity of the halides in the precursor solution,we can overcome the phase segregation issue and obtain spectrally stable single-phase blueemitting perovskites.We demonstrate efficient blue perovskite LEDs with high brightness,e.g.,luminous efficacy of 4.7,2.9,and 0.4 lmW^(-1) and luminance of over 37,000,9,300,and 1,300 cdm^(-2) for sky blue,blue,and deep blue with Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage(CIE)coordinates of(0.068,0.268),(0.091,0.165),and(0.129,0.061),respectively,suggesting real promise of perovskites for LED applications.

Band structure engineering through van der Waals heterostructing superlattices of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides

The indirect-to-direct band-gap transition in transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDCs)from bulk to monolayer,accompanying with other unique properties of two-dimensional materials,has endowed them great potential in optoelectronic devices.The easy transferability and feasible epitaxial growth pave a promising way to further tune the optical properties by constructing van der Waals heterostructures.Here,we performed a systematic high-throughput first-principles study of electronic structure and optical properties of the layerby-layer stacking TMDCs heterostructing superlattices,with the configuration space of[(MX2)n(M0X02)10−n](M/M0=Cr,Mo,W;X/X0=S,Se,Te;n=0-10).Our calculations involving long-range dispersive interaction show that the indirect-to-direct band-gap transition or even semiconductor-to-metal transition can be realized by changing component compositions of superlattices.Further analysis indicates that the indirect-to-direct band-gap transition can be ascribed to the in-plane strain induced by lattice mismatch.The semiconductor-to-metal transition may be attributed to the band offset among different components that is modified by the in-plane strain.The superlattices with direct band-gap show quite weak band-gap optical transition because of the spacial separation of the electronic states involved.In general,the layers stacking-order of superlattices results in a small up to 0.2 eV band gap fluctuation because of the built-in potential.Our results provide useful guidance for engineering band structure and optical properties in TMDCs heterostructing superlattices.

Bismuth and antimony-based oxyhalides and chalcohalides as potential optoelectronic materials

In the last decade the ns^(2) cations(e.g.,Pb^(2+)and Sn^(2+))-based halides have emerged as one of the most exciting new classes of optoelectronic materials,as exemplified by for instance hybrid perovskite solar absorbers.These materials not only exhibit unprecedented performance in some cases,but they also appear to break new ground with their unexpected properties,such as extreme tolerance to defects.However,because of the relatively recent emergence of this class of materials,there remain many yet to be fully explored compounds.Here,we assess a series of bismuth/antimony oxyhalides and chalcohalides using consistent first principles methods to ascertain their properties and obtain trends.Based on these calculations,we identify a subset consisting of three types of compounds that may be promising as solar absorbers,transparent conductors,and radiation detectors.Their electronic structure,connection to the crystal geometry,and impact on band-edge dispersion and carrier effective mass are discussed.

Exploration of B-site alloying in partially reducing Pb toxicity and regulating thermodynamic stability and electronic properties of halide perovskites

Alloying strategies provide a high degree of freedom for reducing lead toxicity,improving thermodynamic stability, tuning the optoelectronic properties of ABX3 halide perovskites by varying the alloying element species and their contents.Given the key role of B-site cations in contributing band edge states and modulating structure factors in halide perovskites,the partial replacement of Pb2+with different B-site metal ions has been proposed.Although several experimental attempts have been made to date,the effect of B-site alloying on the stability and electronic properties of halide perovskites has not been fully explored.Herein,we take cubic CsPbBr3 perovskite as the prototype material and systematically explore the effects of B-site alloying on Pb-containing perovskites.According to the presence or absence of the corresponding perovskite phase,the ten alloying elements investigated are classified into three types(i.e.,Type Ⅰ:Sn Ge,Ca,Sr;Type Ⅱ:Cd,Mg,Mn;Type Ⅲ:Ba,Zn,Cu).Based on the first-principles calculations,we obtain the following conclusions.First,these B-site alloys will exist as disordered solid solutions rather than ordered structures at room temperature throughout the composition space.Second,the alloying of Sn and Ge enhances the thermodynamic stability of the cubic perovskite host,whereas the alloying of the other elements has no remarkable effect on the thermodynamic stability of the cubic perovskite host.Third,the underlying physical mechanism for bandgap tuning can be attributed to the atomic orbital energy mismatch or quantum confinement effect.Fourth,the alloying of different elements demonstrates the diversity in the regulation of crystal structure and electronic properties,indicating potential applications in photovoltaic s and self-trapped exciton-based light-emitting applications.Our work provides theoretical guidance for using alloying strategies to reduce lead toxicity,enhance stability,and optimize the electronic properties of halide perovskites to meet the needs of optoelectronic applications.

光电半导体材料的理论设计

光电半导体作为一种可以将光能和电能相互转换的材料,近几十年来,在能源和电子信息等领域得到广泛应用.随着计算机算力的提升和理论算法的发展,理论设计方法可以在短时间内探索成百上千种材料,相比于采用试错法的实验方式,具有开发周期短且成本低等特点,逐渐成为新材料研发的关键步骤.通过将物理原则与高通量计算、智能优化算法和机器学习等理论设计策略相结合,可以准确高效地探索性能优异的光电半导体材料.本文概述了光电半导体材料的设计策略和研究进展.首先,介绍基于第一性原理计算光电性质的方法,并分析相关物理性质的成因及其在光电半导体设计方面的意义;然后,结合具体的研究成果对高通量材料筛选、物理原则导向的材料设计、基于智能算法的材料搜索和基于机器学习方法的材料发现等不同的光电半导体设计策略进行概述,为该领域的理论设计方向提供指导原则;最后,对光电半导体设计方面的工作进行总结,并对该领域未来的发展进行展望.