Enabling high efficiency photovoltaics: from novel materials to effective devices

中间带（IB）材料是近二十年来人们积极探索的一类新材料。它们有可能从根本上提高光伏发电的效率，并制造出有效而廉价的红外探测器。当中间波段太阳能电池（IBSC）的效益在1997年首次被量化时，还没有发现任何中间波段材料。二十年后，已经开发了几个家族的IB材料，但尚未证明高效IBSC所需的材料性能。这个研究项目致力于使这些新材料实现其潜力，无论是作为太阳能电池还是作为红外光电探测器。该计划有三个重点：(1)开发IB材料和器件的新材料和架构，(2)了解IB材料的基本特性，以及(3)扩展我们的IB器件建模软件Simudo的功能，Simudo是唯一能够模拟IB器件的光学，热学和电学特性的器件模型。近五年来，IB材料发展迅速，新材料和改进的材料性能稳步发展。正是因为没有自然存在的IB材料，它们的基本性质在许多情况下都不为人所知。该项目旨在填补这一空白，在中间波段的性质和性质方面取得基础科学进展。它将利用这些见解来改进现有的IB材料并寻找新的材料。我们还将开发和优化设备架构，以最好地利用这些新材料，这是我们在世界上独一无二的能力，归功于Simudo。在接下来的五年里，该计划将使现有IB材料的改进和优化使用成为可能，使IBSC和IB红外光电探测器实现其潜力。该项目将培养2名博士，4名硕士和其他本科生，掌握凝聚态物理，光电子学和材料科学的基本技术和技能。他们将获得帮助加拿大研究和技术发展所需的工具。

Intermediate band (IB) materials are a new class of materials that have been actively sought for twenty years. They have the potential to radically improve the efficiency of photovoltaics and to make effective and inexpensive infrared photodetectors. When the benefits of intermediate band solar cells (IBSC's) were first quantified in 1997, no IB materials were known. Twenty years later, several families of IB materials have been developed, but none has yet demonstrated the material properties required for high efficiency IBSC's. This research program is dedicated to enabling these novel materials to realize their potential, both as solar cells and as infrared photodetectors. This program has three thrusts: (1) developing new materials and architectures for IB materials and devices, (2) understanding the fundamental properties of IB materials, and (3) extending the capabilities of our IB device modeling software Simudo, the only device model capable of simulating the optical, thermal, and electrical properties of IB devices. The last five years have seen rapid developments in IB materials, with new materials and improved material properties developed at a steady pace. Precisely because there are no naturally occurring IB materials, their basic properties are in many cases not understood. This program aims to fill that gap, producing fundamental science advances on the nature and properties intermediate bands. It will use these insights to improve existing IB materials and to find new ones. We will also develop and optimize the device architectures to best take advantage of these new materials, a capability that we have, uniquely in the world, due to Simudo. Over the next five years this program will enable both improvements over and optimal use of existing IB materials, enabling IBSC's and IB infrared photodetectors to realize their potential. This program will train 2 PhD, 4 MSc, and additional undergraduate students in the essential techniques and skills of condensed matter physics, optoelectronics, and materials science. They will gain the tools they need to aid Canadian research and technology development.