All Inorganic Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cell Devices

光伏技术是确保英国未来能源供应的关键，探索和开发可显著提高效率的新技术将是光伏、国家能源战略的重大突破，并为英国新产业提供领先地位。部署下一代、低成本和高效率的太阳能电池是一个多方面的挑战，需要多学科的努力，包括基础物理、材料合成/加工、工艺开发/优化以及完整的器件制造和表征。只有全面了解所有与设备相关的方面，才能提高效率和降低成本。还必须考虑材料成本、可获得性和对环境的影响。目前的太阳能电池技术都依赖于基本的物理原理，这些原理本质上限制了设备的效率。为了克服这一理论限制，需要利用不同物理机制的新方法。拟议的项目旨在将先进的、具有独特性能的材料结合在一起，可以克服理论限制。具体地说，硅基量子限制和具有高空穴电导率的新型可调谐带隙金属氧化物半导体将被用于制造第一个能够利用载流子倍增并提供超越当前技术理论限制的潜在效率的全无机体异质结光伏器件。利用低成本、不可降解、无毒、丰富和环保的材料以及低成本和可扩展的制造策略，目的是开辟基于纳米技术的新颖和变革性的方法。在该项目结束时，拟议的设备将是未来高效率、低成本、环境足迹有限的光伏发电的有力竞争者，它们将开辟低成本太阳能收集的新纪元。该提案将把化学、纳米技术、材料和等离子体等新元素与设备工程结合在一起，并将获得世界领先的材料和光伏集团的专业知识。

Photovoltaic technology is critical to securing the future energy supply of UK and the exploration and development of new technologies that may significantly enhance efficiencies would be a major breakthrough for photovoltaics, for national energy strategy and provide a head-start for new UK industry.The deployment of next generation, low-cost and high-efficiency solar cells is a multifaceted challenge that requires a multidisciplinary effort and includes fundamental physics, material synthesis/processing, process development/optimization and full device fabrication and characterization. Boosting efficiency and lowering costs can only be achieved with a full-span vision of all device-related aspects. Considerations on materials costs, availability and environmental impact are also mandatory. Current solar cell technologies all rely on fundamental physical principles that are intrinsically limiting device efficiency. In order to overcome this theoretical limit new approaches are required that exploit different physical mechanisms.The proposed project aims to bring together advanced and novel materials with unique properties that can overcome theoretical limits. Specifically silicon-based quantum confinement and novel tuned-bandgap metal oxide semiconductors with high hole conductivity will be used to deliver the first all-inorganic bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic device capable of exploiting carrier multiplication and offering the potential of efficiencies beyond the theoretical limit of current technologies. Utilising low cost, non-degradable, non-toxic, abundant and environmentally-friendly materials as well as low cost and scalable fabrication strategies, the aim is to open up novel and transformative approaches based on nanotechnology. The proposed devices will represent at the end of the project a serious contender for future high efficiency low-cost photovoltaics with limited environmental footprint and they will open up a new era for low-cost solar energy harvesting. The proposal will bring novel elements from chemistry, nanotechnology, materials and plasmas together with device engineering, and will access expertise from world-leading groups in materials and photovoltaics.