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More and more attention has been paid to CsPbIBr2 material for perovskite solar cells (PSCs), owing to the trade-off between bandgap and stability. However, the reported maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of CsPbIBr2 PSCs is lag behind that of the congeners due to the serious interface recombination of charge carriers. In this work, the effects of interface defect density and interface band offset on the properties of CsPbIBr2 PSCs are investigated. It is found that the characteristic of the front electron transfer layer (ETL)/perovskite interface has a significant influence on the performance of PSCs than that of the back perovskite/hole transfer layer (HTL) interface. Additionally, a PCE of 15.05% with a high open-circuit voltage (VOC) of 1.54 V is obtained for the PSCs with FTO/ZnOS/CsPbIBr2/CuAlO2/Au structure. Finally, two-terminal monolithic all-perovskite double-junction tandem solar cells (TSCs) with the architecture of FTO/ZnOS/CsPbIBr2/CuAlO2/ITO/TiO2/MAPbI3/Spiro-MeOTAD/Au are constructed, and a maximum PCE of 27.4% (VOC of 2.60 V, JSC of 12.21 mA/cm2, and FF of 86.42%) is obtained for the TSCs with top and bottom absorber thicknesses of 600 nm and 500 nm respectively. Furthermore, four-terminal triple-junction TSCs are designed with silicon solar cells as bottom sub-cell, and a maximum PCE of 35.35% is achieved. These results will provide theoretical guidance for the fabrication of high performance TSCs.

Formamidinium tin iodide (FASnI3), as one promising Pb-free halide perovskite, has received extensive attention. But perovskite solar cells (PSCs) based on FASnI3 films have yet to realize the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) achieved in its Pb-based counterparts. To investigate the limitation of FASnI3-based perovskite solar cells with inverted p-i-n planar structures, the influences of various parameters on the device performance are analyzed through device simulation. The results reveal that defect density at front hole transport material (HTM)/absorber interface is critical for high efficiency. And it is interesting to note that the doping density, rather than the doping type and its space distribution, dominates the device properties, and an upper limit of 1 × 1016 cm−3 is achieved. In addition, the response of device to band offset is investigated, and an optimum electron affinity of 3.9 eV is obtained. Finally, the effects of relative permittivity and thickness of the absorber with different carrier lifetime are studied. A maximum PCE of 9.75% is achieved at absorber thickness of 300 nm with carrier lifetime of 0.1 ns? These results show that optimizing the interface property and band offset, improving the stability of Sn2+ and reducing the defect density of absorber layer are the main challenges for high-performance FASnI3-based PSCs in the future research.

Plasmonics is a new promising approach to enhance the light absorption in the thin film solar cells. The plasmonic effects of the metal nanoparticle introduced in thin film solar cells could also be detrimental for the higher optical absorption and hence the higher efficiency of solar cells. The effects of the Ag nanospheres arrays on the absorption of amorphous silicon solar cells were investigated by a numerical simulation based on the finite element method. The light absorption under different radius and width of the grating has been calculated. The optimization results show that the absorption of the solar cell with Ag nanospheres is enhanced up to 64 % under AM1.5 illumination in the 500–730 nm wavelength range compared with the reference cell. The physical mechanisms of absorption enhancement in different wavelength range have been discussed. These results are promising for the design of amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with enhanced performance.

The morphology control of CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) thin-film is crucial for the high-efficiency perovskite solar cells, especially for their planar structure devices. Here, a feasible and effective post-treatment method is presented to improve the quality of MAPbI3 films by using methylamine (CH3NH2) vapor. This post-treatment process is studied thoroughly, and the perovskite films with smooth surface, high preferential growth orientation and large crystals are obtained after 10 s treatment in MA atmosphere. It enhances the light absorption, and increases the recombination lifetime. Ultimately, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.3% for the FTO/TiO2/MAPbI3/spiro-OMeTAD/Ag planar architecture solar cells is achieved in combination with this post-treatment method. It represents a 40% improvement in PCE compared to the best control cell. Moreover, the whole post-treatment process is simple and cheap, which only requires some CH3NH2 solution in absolute ethanol. It is beneficial to control the reaction rate by changing the volume of the solution. Therefore, we are convinced that the post-treatment method is a valid and essential approach for the fabrication of high-efficiency perovskite solar cells.

Light trapping is one of the key issues to improve the light absorption and increase the efficiency of thin film solar cells. The effects of the triangular Ag nanograting on the absorption of amorphous silicon solar cells were investigated by a numerical simulation based on the finite element method. The light absorption under different angle and area of the grating has been calculated. Furthermore, the light absorption with different incident angle has been calculated. The optimization results show that the absorption of the solar cell with triangular Ag nanograting structure and anti-reflection film is enhanced up to 96% under AM1.5 illumination in the 300–800 nm wavelength range compared with the reference cell. The physical mechanisms of absorption enhancement in different wavelength range have been discussed. Furthermore, the solar cell with the Ag nanograting is much less sensitive to the angle of incident light. These results are promising for the design of amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with enhanced performance.

A 1-D plasma model coupled with a well-mixed reactor model was used to simulate the effect of discharge power on the growth properties of hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films deposited by very high-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition in the high-pressure depletion regime. Although incorporation of higher silicon hydride particles may contribute to additional improvements in deposition rate, SiH 3 remains the dominant deposition precursor responsible for film growth. Good agreement is observed between the model and experimental results. As power increases, the concentrations of deposition precursors in the gas phase also increase, resulting in enhanced emission intensities and deposition rates. Decreases in SiH 3 /H decrease the H concentration in the film and increase the crystalline volume fraction. The intensity ratio and grain size observed during X-ray diffraction depend on the relative growth rates of the facets. Growth of the (110) facet is enhanced by increases in power because of the increase of H concentration in plasma.

In this study, we successfully prepared Er 3+ –Yb 3+ co-doped TeO 2 –PbF 2 oxyfluoride tellurite glasses with different Yb 3+ concentrations and characterized their upconversion properties. Intense emission bands at 527, 544, and 657 nm corresponded to the Er 3+ transitions, and the maximum was obtained at an Yb 3+ -to-Er 3+ molar ratio of 3. When this glass was applied at the back of amorphous silicon solar cells in combination with a rear reflector, a 0.45% improvement in efficiency was obtained under co-excitation of AM1.5 and 400 mW 980 nm laser radiation. Maximum external quantum efficiency and luminescence quantum efficiency of 0.27% and 1.35%, respectively, were achieved at 300 mW excitation.

The mechanical process of aluminium thin films under uniaxial tensile strain was simulated with molecular dynamics method in a low temperature range from 40 to 250 K. The stress-strain curve and potential energy-strain curve of aluminium thin film under uniaxial tensile deformation were obtained. The variation characteristics of stress-strain curves with temperature are alike at the elastic stage. However, at the plastic stage the stress-strain curves are grouped into three categories (40 K ≤ T < 100 K, 100 K ≤ T < 200 K, 200 K ≤ T ≤ 250 K). From the stress-strain curves, we found the strange temperature dependence of the local maximum stress, maximal potential energy and their corresponding strain: when the temperature is below 100 K, they go down quickly with temperature, and when above 100 K and below 200 K, they descend slowly and do very slowly above 200 K. Therefore, we have identified two critical temperatures for the transition of plastic flow mechanism.

The upconversion (UC) properties of β-NaYF4:Yb3+(10%),Er3+(1%) microprisms synthesized using a hydrothermal method were studied under different excitation conditions. It was found that the UC emission of β-NaYF4:Yb3+(10%),Er3+(1%) was more sensitive to the 980 nm photons than the 1560 nm photons, because of the high mole ratio of Yb3+/Er3+ in crystals. Applying this material at the back of a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cell, a short-circuit current density of 64 μA/cm2 was measured under 0.53 W/cm2 980 nm laser excitation. This corresponds to an external quantum efficiency of 0.015% of the solar cell. When co-excited with the 980 nm and 1560 nm lasers, a very weak enhancement in the current was shown, which resulted from the slightly increased red emission. This indicates that co-excitation with multiple wavelengths accessible to the β-NaYF4:Yb3+(10%),Er3+(1%) microprisms is not an effective method to enhance the efficiency of a-Si:H solar cells.

The ARGO-YBJ experiment is an air shower detector for gamma ray astronomy and cosmic ray studies with an energy threshold of ∼500 GeV. Working in “single particle mode”, i.e. counting the single particles hitting the detector at fixed time intervals, ARGO-YBJ can monitor cosmic ray and gamma ray transients at energies of a few GeV. The single particle counting rate is modulated by the atmospheric pressure and temperature, and is affected by the local radioactivity from soil and air. Among the radioactive elements, radon gas is of particular importance since its concentration in air can vary significantly, according to environmental conditions. In this paper we evaluate the contribution of the radon daughter gamma ray emitters to the single particle counting rate measured by ARGO-YBJ. According to our analysis, the radon gas contribution is roughly 1–2%, producing a counting rate modulation of the same order of magnitude of the atmospheric effects.

β-NaYF 4 :Er 3+ (10%) microprisms, synthesized using a hydrothermal method, were applied to the back of a thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells to investigate response to sub-band gap near-infrared irradiation. Currents of 0.3 μA and 0.01 μA were measured during single-illumination with 60 mW (80 mW/cm 2 ) 980 nm and 1560 nm diode lasers, respectively, due to frequency upconversion (UC). Under co-excitation by 60 mW 980 nm and 100 mW 1560 nm lasers, a current improvement to 0.54 μA was obtained, resulting from enhancements in red emission. The finding indicates that co-excitation with multiple wavelengths accessible to UC materials is very effective in enhancing the efficiency of solar cells.

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) films were successfully prepared using a co-electrodeposition-annealing route, in which metal precursor layers were deposited by a co-electrodeposition in aqueous ionic solution, followed by the sulfurization in elemental sulfur vapor ambient at 400 °C for 30 min using nitrogen as the protective gas. The dependence of the structural and optical properties on composition in aqueous solution is investigated. It is shown that CZTS film synthesized at Cu/(Zn + Sn) = 0.71 and Zn/Sn = 1 has a kesterite structure with an absorption coefficient in the order of 104 cm− 1, and the band-gap can be feasible modified by changing the element ratios in solution. This indicates that co-electrodeposition-annealing method is a viable process for the growth of CZTS films for the application in photovoltaic device.

The mechanical process of single-crystal aluminium thin films under uniaxial tensile strain was simulated with molecular dynamics method at different temperature. The stress–strain curve and potential energy–strain curve of thin aluminium film under uniaxial tensile deformation were obtained by molecular dynamics simulations. With the changes of sample temperatures in uniaxial extension, the variation characteristics of stress–strain curves are alike at the elastic stage and different at the plastic one below and above 370 K, respectively. From the stress–strain curves, we gained the first local maximum stress-temperature curve and the strain at the first local maximum stress-temperature curve, and found that the strange temperature dependence of first local maximum stress: when the temperature is above 370 K, the stress goes down quickly with temperature, and when below 370 K, it descends slowly. With increasing temperature, the difference between two strain values corresponding to two maximal potential energies changes slowly below and above 370K but it goes up quickly about 370K. By these dependences, we have identified the critical temperature （370K） for the transition of plastic flow mechanism.

We present a numerical gas phase reaction model for hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films from SiH4 and H2 gas mixtures with plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Under the typical μc-Si:H deposition conditions, the concentrations of the species in the plasma are calculated and the effects of silane fraction (SF=[SiH4]/[H2+SiH4]) are investigated. The results show that SiH3 is the key precursor for μc-Si:H films growth, and other neutral radicals, such as Si2H5, Si2H4 and SiH2, may play some roles in the film deposition. With the silane fraction increasing, the precursor concentration increases, but H atom concentration decreases rapidly, which results in the lower H/SiH3 ratio.

The molecular dynamics simulations are performed with single-crystal copper thin films under uniaxial tensile loading to investigate temperature effects on the mechanical responses. We found that with increasing sample temperatures, both the maximum stress and the Young’s modulus decrease, but the maximal potential energy increases. So, we identified the critical temperature for the transition of deformation mechanism. Then, the deformation was analyzed by examining the variation of the atomic structure of the emerging dislocation. Finally, activation volume and activation free energy of tensile deformation at the maximum stress point of thin Cu film have been calculated for the first time in a temperature range from 293 to 460 K. Thus, the mechanisms of the strange temperature dependence of tensile deformation have been explained. It is found that there exist three temperature regions, which correspond to different thermal activation mechanisms of dislocation motion. When the temperature is above 370 K, the rate-controlling mechanism is dislocation climbing; when below 370 K, the mechanism is mainly characterized by the overcoming of Peierls–Nabarro barrier and a few localized pinnings; and when about 370 K, the mechanism is pipe diffusion.

Microcrystalline silicon thin film is deposited under different conditions by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The light stability with different crystallinity and grain size is studied, and the growth mechanism is analyzed using the scaling behavior of roughening surface evolution. Degradation of photoconductivity mainly depends on crystallinity and grain size, but fundamentally, on the growth mechanism. Materials with high crystallinity and large grain size are more stable under light soaking. With the increasing of deposition pressure and input power, growth process transfers to zero diffusion limit growth mechanism, and films deposited present less grain size and poor light stability.

High-quality hydrogenated amorphous silicon films (a-Si:H) were deposited on quartz glass substrates by radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. The films were then annealed at 800 °C for 3 min by rapid thermal processing (RTP). As confirmed by X-ray diffractometry and Raman spectrometry, hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon films were obtained after the annealing procedure. The mechanism of the rapid solid-phase recrystallization of a-Si:H film by RTP was theoretically mainly attributed to the interaction between short-wavelength photons and ground-state precursor radicals (silicon, SiH 2 and SiH 3 ).

In is paper, the transient behavior of silane molecules in the initial plasma ignition stage on the properties of microcrystalline silicon films is studied using tailored initial SiH4 density method, and the results are analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. Compared with standard plasma ignition conditions, tailored initial SiH4 density conditions result higher crystallinity in the interface between substrate and bulk film. Finally, tailored and standard conditions are used in i-layer deposition processes of p-i-n and n-i-p solar cells. It is demonstrated that tailored initial SiH4 density conditions is helpful for the efficiency improvement of n-i-p solar cells and standard plasma ignition conditions for p-i-n solar cells.

Effect of 5.0% diluted NH 4 Cl aqueous solution was comparably investigated on the postdeposition surface texture of the as-deposited smooth aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films by direct current pulse reactive magnetron sputtering (DCP-sputtering) and direct current reactive magnetron sputtering (DC-sputtering). The as-deposited AZO films by DCP-sputtering showed an effective surface texture for light trapping upon the etching of 5.0% diluted NH 4 Cl solution, while the as-deposited AZO films by DC-sputtering demonstrated an obscure surface texture upon the same etching treatment. The different result might be attributable to a big difference in film strain and film compactness. The formation of interstitial Zn, interstitial Al and grain boundary is the key to realize effective surface texture for the as-deposited AZO films.

Intrinsic microcrystalline silicon has been deposited by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique at frequency of 75 MHz. Different gas mixtures of silane and hydrogen were utilized, and the evolution of microstructure and phase in film were studied, while keeping the substrate temperature at 200 °C and the chamber pressure at 0.5 Torr. Optimised material was inserted in p–i–n solar cells: preliminary efficiency of 5.5% was reached for 1 μm-thick solar cells with the V oc around 0.6 V.

Using diborane as doping gas, p-doped μc-Si:H layers are deposited by using the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technology. The effects of deposition pressure and plasma power on the growth and the properties of μc-Si:H layers are investigated. The results show that the deposition rate, the electrical and the structural properties are all strongly dependent on deposition pressure and plasma power. Boron-doped μc-Si:H films with a dark conductivity as high as 1.42 Ω−1cm−1 and a crystallinity of above 50% are obtained. With this p-layer, μc-Si:H solar cells are fabricated. In addition, the mechanism for the effects of deposition pressure and plasma power on the growth and the properties of boron-doped μc-Si:H layers is discussed.

CNx films with x?0.5 were prepared on to a titanium coated ceramic substrate by using microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition. As-deposited films were studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The films consist of nano-crystalline grains with sites in a range of 20-40?nm approximately. The interplanar distance (d-value) of the nano-crystalline structure determined from the peak position of x-ray diffraction was found to be 0.336?nm. This value is consistent with the d-value of graphite. XPS measurements of the N 1?s and C 1?s core levels for the same sample demonstrate two types of bonding structures between carbon and nitrogen atoms, corresponding to sp2 C-N and sp3 C-N. It is suggested that the N atoms mainly exist in aromatic rings of the nano-graphite layers by substituting carbon positions with nitrogen. Field electron emission characteristics of the film were tested. The turn-on field of the emission was as low as 1.1?V/?m.

Bovine follicular oocytes were collected from ovarian antral follicles (2 to 7 mm in diameter) from slaughtered cattle. They were matured in vitro (IVM) for 23 to 24 h and then activated. In Experiment 1, 4 concentrations of ethanol were compared. The activation rates of oocytes were 4, 12, 36 and 27%, respectively, following exposure for 7 min to 0, 5, 7 and 10% ethanol. In Experiment 2, 7% ethanol was tested with exposure times of 0, 5, 7.5 and 10 min, and 6, 32, 27 and 33% of the oocytes were activated, respectively. In Experiment 3 the synergistic effect of ethanol and electric pulse was compared within 4 treatments: A) 7% ethanol alone, B) electric pulse alone, C) ethanol first and then electric pulse treatment, and D) electric pulse first followed by ethanol exposure. Of the oocytes activated, 37, 31, 28 and 51%, respectively, were from Treatments A through D. In Experiments 4 and 5 the possible synergistic effect of ethanol and a protein synthesis inhibitor, cycloheximide, was studied within 4 treatments: A) parthenogenetic control with no activation treatment, B) ethanol alone, C) cycloheximide alone, and D) ethanol treatment followed by cycloheximide. The oocyte activation rates in Experiment 4 in Treatments A through D, respectively, were 9, 44, 43 and 84%. Corresponding values for development of oocytes to the 2 to 8-cell stage after culture for 3 d (Experiment 5) were 9, 20, 14 and 45%, respectively (P

An electroluminescence (EL) device is investigated by using boron and nitrogen double-doped diamond films. The characteristics of the EL spectrum and the dependence of EL intensity on boron and nitrogen impurity are investigated. The experiment indicated that the intensity of EL increases obviously and the threshold voltage decreases with increasing nitrogen impurity within our doped level. Meanwhile the highest emission line changes from the blue region (peaks at 470 nm) to the yellow region (peaks at 584 nm).

The scaling behaviour of surface roughness evolution of μc-Si:H prepared by very high frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF-PECVD) has been investigated using spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The growth exponent β was compared for the film deposited under the different pressure P g . For films deposited at P g = 70 Pa, the growth exponent β is about.0.22, which corresponds to the definite diffusion growth. However, films deposited at P g = 300 Pa show abnormal scaling behavior with the exponent β of about.0.81, which is much larger than 0.5 of zero diffusion limit in the scaling theory. This implies that some roughening increasing mechanism such as shadowing effect contributes to the growing surface.

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) films are successfully prepared by co-electrodeposition in aqueous ionic solution and sulfurized in elemental sulfur vapor ambient at 400 °C for 30 min using nitrogen as the protective gas. It is found that the CZTS film synthesized at Cu/(Zn+Sn)=0.71 has a kesterite structure, a bandgap of about 1.51 eV, and an absorption coefficient of the order of 104 cm−1. This indicates that the co-electrodeposition method with aqueous ionic solution is a viable process for the growth of CZTS films for application in photovoltaic devices.

This paper reports that a series of silver oxide (AgxO) films are deposited on glass substrates by direct-current reactive magnetron sputtering at a substrate temperature of 250 °C and an oxygen flux ratio of 15:18 by modifying the sputtering power (SP). The AgxO films deposited apparently show a structural evolution from cubic biphased (AgO + Ag2O) to cubic single-phased (Ag2O), and to biphased (Ag2O + AgO) structure. Notably, the cubic single-phased Ag2O film is deposited at the SP = 105 W and an AgO phase with (220) orientation discerned in the AgxO films deposited using the SP > 105 W. The transmissivity and reflectivity of the AgxO films in transparent region decrease with the increase the SP, whereas the absorptivity inversely increases with the increase of the SP. These results may be due to the structural evolution and the increasing film thickness. A redshift of the films' absorption edges determined in terms of Tauc formula clearly occurs from 3.1 eV to 2.73 eV with the increase of the SP.

The structural un-uniformity of μc-Si:H films prepared using a very high frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition method has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometer and atomic force microscopy. It was found that the formation of amorphous incubation layer was caused by the back diffusion of SiH4 and the amorphous induction of glass surface during the initial ignition process, and growth of the incubation layer can be suppressed and uniform μc-Si:H phase is generated by the application of delayed initial SiH4 density and silane profiling methods.

Undoped hydrogenated silicon films have been prepared from a gas mixture of silane and hydrogen, at deposition temperature varying from 200—450℃ in an ultrahigh vacuum system using RFPECVD technique. Raman scattering, SEM and UV spectrophotometer are used to analyse the structure changes of microcrystalline silicon films throughout the deposition temperature range. Results show that at lower deposition temperature, the crystalline volume fraction of μc-Si:H films increased with the increasing of deposition temperature. Exceeding a certain temperature, the crystalline volume fraction decreased with further increasing of deposition temperature. This is attributed to a change in the dominant film growth process from surface-diffusion-limited at low deposition temperatures to flux-limited at higher deposition temperatures.

CNx films were prepared by using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor phase deposition. As-deposited films were analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Field electron emission characteristics of thin films were studied. Experimental results indicate that the film structure and properties of the field electron emission are related to flow ratio of N2 to H2 while the flow rate of CH4 was kept at 8 sccm. When the flow ratio of N2 to H2 was 50/50 sccm, the obtained film had a nano-crystalline graphitic structure with curved basal planes (fullerene-like structure) and excellent properties of field electron emission. The turn-on field decreased to 1.1 V/μm. At an electric field of 5.9V/μm, the average current density was 70μA/cm2 and emission sites density was larger than 1×104cm-2.

Diamond thin films were prepared by using chemical vapor deposition. It is enhanced to etch the sp2 bonding carbon atoms of the film by intermittently closing the methane gas during the deposition. These films were characterized by Raman spectroscopy and microscopy. The results show that the enhanced etching of sp2 bonding carbon atoms has no obvious effect on quality and microstructure of the diamond films. It reveals that the sp2 bonding carbon atoms do not mainly exist in graphitic or amorphous carbon grain form in the films but mainly among the carbon atoms of diamond grain surface or grain boundary.