Energy band adjustment of 808 nm GaAs laser power converters via gradient doping

The gradient doping regions were employed in the emitter layer and the base layer of GaAs based laser power converters(LPCs).Silvaco TCAD was used to numerically simulate the linear gradient doping and exponential gradient doping structure,and analyze the transport process of photogenerated carriers.Energy band adjustment via gradient doping improved the separation and transport efficiency of photogenerated carriers and reduced the total recombination rate of GaAs LPCs.Compared with traditional structure of LPCs,the photoelectric conversion efficiency of LPCs with linear and exponential gradient doping structure were improved from 52.7%to 57.2%and 57.7%,respectively,under 808 nm laser light at the power density of 1 W/cm^(2).

Distribution of carriers in gradient-doping transmission-mode GaAs photocathodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The gradient-doping structure is first applied to prepare the transmission-mode GaAs photocathode and the integral sensitivity of the sealed image tube achieves 1420μA/lm. This paper studies the inner carrier concentration distribution of the gradient-doping transmission-mode GaAs photocathode after molecular beam epitaxy （MBE） growth using the electrochemical capacitance-voltage profiling. The results show that an ideal gradient-doping structure can be obtained by using MBE growth. The total band-bending energy in the gradient-doping GaAs active-layer with doping concentration ranging from 1×10^19 cm-3 to 1×1018 cm-3 is calculated to be 46.3 meV, which helps to improve the photoexcited electrons movement toward surface for the thin epilayer. In addition,by analysis of the band offsets, it is found that the worse carrier concentration discrepancy between GaAs and GaA1As causes a lower back interface electron potential barrier which decreases the amount of high-energy photoelectrons and affects the short-wave response.

Gradient Si-and Ti-doped Fe_(2)O_(3) hierarchical homojunction photoanode for efficient solar water splitting:Effect of facile microwave-assisted growth of Si-FeOOH on Ti-FeOOH nanocorals

The construction of a homojunction is an effective approach for addressing issues such as slow charge separation and charge-transfer kinetics in photoanodes.In the present work,we designed a gradient Si-and Ti-doped Fe_(2)O_(3) homojunction photoanode to improve the photoelectrochemical(PEC)performance of a Ti-doped Fe_(2)O_(3) photoanode.Ti-FeOOH nanocorals were synthesized using a hydrothermal process,and Si-FeOOH was grown on Ti-FeOOH nanocorals using a rapid and facile microwaveassisted(MW)technique.By varying the MW irradiation time,the thickness of the Si/Ti:Fe_(2)O_(3) photoanode was adjusted and an optimized 3-Si/Ti:Fe_(2)O_(3) photoelectrode was achieved with a significantly enhanced photocurrent density(1.37 mA cm^(-2) at 1.23 V vs.RHE)and a cathodic shift of the onset potential(150 mV)compared with that of bare Ti-Fe_(2)O_(3).This enhanced PEC performance can be ascribed to homojunction formation and Si gradient doping.The Si dopant increased the donor concentration and the formation of a homojunction improved the intrinsic built-in electric field,thereby promoting charge separation and charge transfer.Furthermore,the as-formed homojunction passivated the surfacetrapping states,consequently improving the charge transfer efficiency(60%at 1.23 VRHE)at the photoanode/electrolyte interface.These findings could pave the way for the microwave-assisted fabrication of diverse efficient homojunction photoanodes for PEC water splitting applications.

Proton transport controlled at surface layer of CeO_(2) by gradient-doping with a built-in-field effect

Ceramic fuel cells hold an important position for the sustainable energy future using renewable energy sources with high efficiency.The design and synthesis of active materials,interface engineering and having capability of low operating temperature is considered as an important factor to further increase the power output and stability of ceramic fuel cell devices.A novel methodology has vital importance to develop new functionalities of existing materials by introducing new different effects.The built-in electric field(BIEF) is one of the most recently used approaches to improve charge transfer and ionic conductivity of solid oxide materials.Herein,we demonstrate gradient doping strategy in CeO_(2)-δstructure to produce BIEF effect and to modulate the proton transport effectively at the surface layer rather than bulk structure.The inclusions of La and Sr metal ions at the surface and Co-metal ions into bulk-layer of CeO_(2)form the gradiently doped structure.The gradient doping into CeO_(2)highly improves the proton transport properties through the surface layer by modifying the energy levels.Moreover,unbalanced charge distribution due to gradient doping produces built-in electric-field to provide extra driving force for protons transport through surface layer.The acquired gradiently doped fluorite structure exhibits remarkable proton conductivity of>0.2 S/cm,as a result ceramic fuel cell shows power output of>1000 mW/cm2while operating at 500℃.This unique work highlights the critical role of gradiently doped electrolyte in electrochemical conversion energy devices and offers new understanding and practices for sustainable energy future.

Branched core-shell a-TiO_(2)@N-TiO_(2) nanospheres with gradient-doped N for highly efficient photocatalytic applications

A branched core-shell nanosphere composed of an anatase TiO_(2)(a-TiO_(2)) core and a TiO_(2)nanobranch shell with gradient-doped N(a-TiO_(2)@N-TiO_(2)) is synthesized by a simple in situ doping method, in which mixed crystal anatase-rutile TiO_(2)(ar-TiO_(2)) nanosphere is first prepared by oxidizing Ti using H_(2)O_(2), and then is etched by NH_(3)·H_(2)O to form(NH_(4))2TiO_(3)nanobranches, which is converted into a-TiO_(2)@N-TiO_(2)following an ambient annealing process. The diameter of a-TiO_(2)core is ~500 nm, and the thickness of NTiO_(2)branched shell is ~100 nm with gradually increased N concentration from the bottom to the edge.Ultra-thin amorphous coating layers on the branches are also observed. The morphology of the composites could be further tuned by the amount of NH_(3)·H_(2)O, and its effect on the photocatalytic performance is also investigated. The optimized a-TiO_(2)@N-TiO_(2)shows an outstanding hydrogen evolution rate of 308.1 μmol g^(-1)h^(-1)under air mass(AM) 1.5 illumination, and also exhibits highly active in photocatalytic degradation of various refractory organic pollutants, including organic dyes, phenols, antibiotics,and personal care products, with removal ratios higher than 96% after 2 h operation. This can be due to the gradient-doped N-TiO_(2)nanobranches, which not only provide bending band structure and defect level derived from the N impurities and O vacancies, resulting the formation of n-n+heterojunctions to improve the charge separation, but also enhance the charge transfer at the liquid-solid interface due to the numerous nanobranches and amorphous coating layers.

Emitter layer optimization in heterojunction bifacial silicon solar cells

Silicon solar cells continue to dominate the market,due to the abundance of silicon and their acceptable efficiency.The heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer(HIT)structure is now the dominant technology.Increasing the efficiency of these cells could expand the development choices for HIT solar cells.We presented a detailed investigation of the emitter a-Si:H(n)lay-er of a p-type bifacial HIT solar cell in terms of characteristic parameters which include layer doping concentration,thickness,band gap width,electron affinity,hole mobility,and so on.Solar cell composition:(ZnO/nc-Si:H(n)/a-Si:H(i)/c-Si(p)/a-Si:H(i)/nc-Si:H(p)/ZnO).The results reveal optimal values for the investigated parameters,for which the highest computed efficiency is 26.45%when lighted from the top only and 21.21%when illuminated from the back only.