Engineered Quantum Dots in Solar Energy Conversion: Photovoltaics and Beyond

Victor KLIMOV, Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA

Quantum-confined semiconductor nanocrystals, or “quantum dots,” are promising materials for applications in a range of solar-energy technologies including low-cost solar cells and generation of solar fuels. In addition to solution processability, they feature size/shape-tunable optical spectra, as well as a variety of novel physical properties that can enable fundamentally new schemes of solar energy conversion. This presentation provides an overview of fundamental and applied studies of quantum dots conducted in the context of solar energy conversion with a focus on advanced concepts such as carrier multiplication (generation of multiple excitons by single photons) and up-conversion of infrared solar radiation. The specific topics will include charge transport properties of quantum dot assemblies evaluated via a novel technique of ultrafast photoconductivity, recent progress in understanding of carrier multiplication in quantum confined materials, demonstration of a significant (ca. four-fold) enhancement of multiexciton yields by implementing the control of intra-band relaxation, and applications of engineered quantum dots in up-conversion of infrared light via a confinement-enhanced Auger process.

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