1301.1314 (Elias Assmann et al.)

Oxide Heterostructures for Efficient Solar Cells    [PDF]

Elias Assmann, Peter Blaha, Robert Laskowski, Karsten Held, Satoshi Okamoto, Giorgio Sangiovanni

We propose an unexplored class of absorbing materials for high-efficiency solar cells: heterostructures of transition-metal oxides. In particular, LaVO_3 grown on SrTiO_3 has a direct band gap ~1.1 eV in the optimal range as well as an internal potential gradient, which can greatly help to separate the photo-generated electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, oxide heterostructures afford the flexibility to combine LaVO_3 with other materials such as LaFeO_3 in order to achieve even higher efficiencies with band-gap graded solar cells. We use density-functional theory to demonstrate these features.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.1314