From bulk crystals to nanowires: investigating CH3NH3PbI3 photovoltaic perovskite

Titolo: From bulk crystals to nanowires: investigating CH3NH3PbI3 photovoltaic perovskite

Relatore: László Forró (EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland)

Coordinate: mercoledì 11 maggio 2016, ore 17:00, aula A

Abstract: Recently, it has been shown by the Snaith [1] and Graetzel [2] groups that CH3NH3PbI3 is very promising material in photovoltaic devices reaching light conversion efficiency (η) up to 21%. A strong research activity has been focused on the chemistry of the material to establish the most important parameters which could further improve η and to collect photons from a broad energy window. The major trend in this field is in photovoltaic device engineering although the fundamental aspects of the material are not yet understood.

In my lab we have devoted considerable effort to the growth of high quality single crystals at different length scales, ranging from large bulk crystals (up to 100 mm3) through nanowires [3,4] down to quantum dots of tens of nanometers of linear dimensions. The structural tunability of the material allows to study a broad range of physical phenomena including electrical and thermal transport, magnetism and optical properties which will be reported in this presentation together with some device applications [5].

Acknowledgement: The work has been performed in collaboration with Endre Horvath, Massimo Spina, Balint Nafradi, Alla Araktcheva, Andrea Pisoni, Jacim Jacimovic and the Van der Marel group. This work was partially supported by the ERC Advanced Grant (PICOPROP#670918).

References:
1. Lee, M. M. et al.,Science 338, 643-647 (2012).
2. Stranks, S. D. et al.. Science, 342, 341−344, (2013).
3. Horvath et al., Nano Letters 14, 6761, (2015)
4. Spina et al., (2016) Scientific Reports, 6, 1
5. Spina et al., (2015) Small, 11, 4823