The efficiencies of open-air processed Cu2O/Zn1–xMgxO heterojunction solar cells are doubled by reducing the effect of the Schottky barrier between Zn1–xMgxO and the indium tin oxide (ITO) top contact. By depositing Zn1–xMgxO with a long band-tail, charge flows through the Zn1–xMgxO/ITO Schottky barrier without rectification by hopping between the sub-bandgap states. High current densities are obtained by controlling the Zn1–xMgxO thickness to ensure that the Schottky barrier is spatially removed from the p–n junction, allowing the full built-in potential to form, in addition to taking advantage of the increased electrical conductivity of the Zn1–xMgxO films with increasing thickness. This work therefore shows that the Zn1–xMgxO window layer sub-bandgap state density and thickness are critical parameters that can be engineered to minimize the effect of Schottky barriers on device performance. More generally, these findings show how to improve the performance of other photovoltaic system reliant on transparent top contacts, e.g., CZTS and CIGS.

Electrochemically deposited Cu2O solar cells are receiving growing attention owing to a recent doubling in efficiency. This was enabled by the controlled chemical environment used in depositing doped ZnO layers by atomic layer deposition, which is not well suited to large-scale industrial production. While open air fabrication with atmospheric pressure spatial atomic layer deposition overcomes this limitation, we find that this approach is limited by an inability to remove the detrimental CuO layer that forms on the Cu2O surface. Herein, we propose strategies for achieving efficiencies in atmospherically processed cells that are equivalent to the high values achieved in vacuum processed cells.

The influence of the stoichiometry of amorphous zinc tin oxide (a-ZTO) thin films used as the semiconducting channel in thin film transistors (TFTs) is investigated. A-ZTO has been deposited using remote-plasma reactive sputtering from zinc:tin metal alloy targets with 10%, 33%, and 50% Sn at. %. Optimisations of thin films are performed by varying the oxygen flow, which is used as the reactive gas. The structural, optical, and electrical properties are investigated for the optimised films, which, after a post-deposition annealing at 500 °C in air, are also incorporated as the channel layer in TFTs. The optical band gap of a-ZTO films slightly increases from 3.5 to 3.8 eV with increasing tin content, with an average transmission ∼90% in the visible range. The surface roughness and crystallographic properties of the films are very similar before and after annealing. An a-ZTO TFT produced from the 10% Sn target shows a threshold voltage of 8 V, a switching ratio of 108, a sub-threshold slope of 0.55 V dec−1, and a field effect mobility of 15 cm2 V−1 s−1, which is a sharp increase from 0.8 cm2 V−1 s−1 obtained in a reference ZnO TFT. For TFTs produced from the 33% Sn target, the mobility is further increased to 21 cm2 V−1 s−1, but the sub-threshold slope is slightly deteriorated to 0.65 V dec−1. For TFTs produced from the 50% Sn target, the devices can no longer be switched off (i.e., there is no channel depletion). The effect of tin content on the TFT electrical performance is explained in the light of preferential sputtering encountered in reactive sputtering, which resulted in films sputtered from 10% and 33% Sn to be stoichiometrically close to the common Zn2SnO4 and ZnSnO3 phases.

with different (from 0 to 6) combinations of truncated and full-length sequences. Formation of concatemers was assessed by the use of singlemolecule photobleaching and protein cross-linking. Whole-cell recordings from concatenated PANX1 constructs suggest that at least four intact C-termini are required to inhibit channel activity. In addition, as the number of intact C-termini increased, there was a progressive decrease in single channel conductance, suggesting that individual C-termini may act within the multimeric channel to inhibit channel conductance. These results provide further mechanistic insights into the regulation of PANX1 channels by the C-terminal autoinhibitory domains.

Methods of improving low-cost Cu2O|ZnO heterojunction diodes fabricated through galvanostatic deposition of Cu2O are presented. Improved processing parameters responsible for maximizing built-in voltage (Vbi) are determined. The relationship between pH, deposition current, temperature, and diode quality is analyzed and a process window for optimal Cu2O deposition on ZnO is obtained with a pH range between 12.0 and 12.1 and a current density range which is determined by the effect of both pH and deposition current (Jdep) on grain size. The pH window is found to be narrower than previously reported1 and much narrower than the processing window for the deposition of Cu2O films. A two-step approach deposition based on the use of different Jdep is presented for the first time. A Vbi of 0.6 V is achieved, which is the highest reported for cells produced using low temperature processing routes involving electrodeposition and reactive sputtering.