Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 23: Focus Session: Thin Film Photovoltaic Materials and Solar Cells II

DS 23.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 15:45–16:00, H8

Oxide Heterostructures for Efficient Solar Cells — •Elias Assmann¹, Peter Blaha², Karsten Held¹, Satoshi Okamoto³, and Giorgio Sangiovanni⁴ — ¹Institut für Festkörperphysik, Technische Universität Wien — ²Institut für Materialchemie, Technische Universität Wien — ³Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA — ⁴Institut für Theoretische und Astrophysik, Universität Würzburg

We propose an unexplored class of absorbing materials for high-efficiency solar cells: heterostructures of transition-metal oxides. In particular, LaVO₃ grown on SrTiO₃ has a direct band gap ∼ 1.1  eV in the optimal range as well as an internal potential gradient, which can greatly help to separate the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, oxide heterostructures afford the flexibility to combine LaVO₃ with other materials such as LaFeO₃ in order to achieve even higher efficiencies with band-gap graded solar cells. We use density-functional theory to demonstrate these features.