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SYEM: Symposium Emerging Materials for Renewable Energy Conversion

SYEM 1: Emerging Materials for Renewable Energy Conversion

SYEM 1.4: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 11:30–12:00, H 0105

Autonomous composition control of emerging nitride materials for solar energy conversion — •Andriy Zakutayev — National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO, USA

New photoabsorber materials, including nitrides, are desired for solar energy conversion into chemical feedstocks such as hydrogen and liquid fuels. However, experimental realization of computationally predicted absorber candidates is challenging, and synthesis optimization to achieve theoretical properties is time-consuming. In this talk, I will show how experimental synthesis of epitaxial thin films of emerging ZnTiN2 photoabsorber [1] can be aided by autonomous control of its chemical composition [2]. Bayesian algorithms fed by optical plasma emission spectroscopy are used to control Zn and Ti precursor fluxes and other sputter deposition parameters to achieve the desired ZnTiN2 composition for different deposition conditions. High-quality (001) oriented ZnTiN2 wurtzite thin films on sapphire substrates are achieved with atomically flat surfaces, suitable for epitaxial integration with III-N and II-O wurtzite semiconductors into photoelectrochemical energy conversion devices. Together, these results illustrate the promise of autonomous control methods for accelerated synthesis of emerging materials for renewable energy conversion. Accelerated measurements of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy using autonomous characterization methods will be also discussed. [1] JACS 144, 13673 (2022) [2] APL Mater. 11, 071119 (2023)

Keywords: nitride; autonomous; sputtering; epitaxial; wurtzite