A novel approach to improving all-inorganic colloidal quantum dot (CQD) homojunction solar cells by engineering the doping spatial profile to produce a doping gradient within the n-type absorber is presented. The doping gradient greatly improves carrier collection and enhances the voltages attainable by the device, leading to a 1 power point power conversion efficiency (PCE) improvement over previous inorganic CQD solar cells.

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells combine solution-processability with quantum-size-effect tunability for low-cost harvesting of the sun's broad visible and infrared spectrum. The highest-performing colloidal quantum dot solar cells have, to date, relied on a depleted-heterojunction architecture in which an n-type transparent metal oxide such as TiO2 induces a depletion region in the p-type CQD solid. These devices have, until now, been limited by a modest depletion region depth produced in the CQD solid owing to limitations in the doping available in TiO2. Herein we report a new device geometry-one based on a donor-supply electrode (DSE)-that leads to record-performing CQD photovoltaic devices. Only by employing this new charge-extracting approach do we deepen the depletion region in the CQD solid and thereby extract notably more photocarriers, the key element in achieving record photocurrent and device performance. With the use of optoelectronic modeling corroborated by experiment, we develop the guidelines for building a superior CQD solar cell based on the DSE concept. We confirm that using a shallow-work-function terminal electrode is essential to producing improved charge extraction and enhanced performance.

Recent advances in spectrally tuned, solution-processed plasmonic nanoparticles have provided unprecedented control over light's propagation and absorption via engineering at the nanoscale. Simultaneous parallel progress in colloidal quantum dot photovoltaics offers the potential for low-cost, large-area solar power; however, these devices suffer from poor quantum efficiency in the more weakly absorbed infrared portion of the sun's spectrum. Here, we report a plasmonic-excitonic solar cell that combines two classes of solution-processed infrared materials that we tune jointly. We show through experiment and theory that a plasmonic-excitonic design using gold nanoshells with optimized single particle scattering-to-absorption cross-section ratios leads to a strong enhancement in near-field absorption and a resultant 35% enhancement in photocurrent in the performance-limiting near-infrared spectral region.

We present on a metal-insulator-insulator-metal quantum electronic tunneling devices suitable for high speed rectifiers. Through the introduction of double oxide layer between similar metallic electrodes, a cascaded potential barrier is formed which alters the electron tunneling mechanism at forward versus the reverse bias. The cascaded potential barrier engineering manifests itself in both a highly nonlinear and asymmetric I-V junction characteristic. It is envisioned that high speed rectifiers and mixers having extraordinary nonlinearity can be realized through the incorporation of the cascaded potential barrier architecture and dissimilar metallic electrodes.

We present a new class of plasmonic photoconductive THz emitters based on a complementary Sierpinski gasket fractal geometry. Due to the presence of sub-wavelength perforations on the surface of the antenna, these antennae operate in the plasmonic regime. By utilizing the unique self-similar and space filling of the tailored fractal surface and the plasmonic surface current spatial distribution, photoconductive THz emitters exhibiting superior performance (~80% increase in the emitted THz radiation power) to conventional bow-tie and Sierpinski gasket THz emitters are demonstrated. It is shown that the self-similarity of the surface plasmon current present on the antenna surface is responsible for this emission enhancement.