arXiv subjects

Qilin Gu

Publications and source records attributed to Qilin Gu.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2011

Modeling of heterojunction photovoltaic cells based on ZnO nanowires array and earth-abundant cuprous oxide absorbers

As a potential solution for low-cost efficient solar cells, radial junctions consisting of ZnO nanowires arrays embedded in Cu2O thin films have been theoretically modeled. Calculations have been performed to explore the geometric dependence of performance of such wire-based solar cells. By properly setting material properties and cell dimensions, a reasonable power conversion efficiency of 19.7% can be expected in a material with 2 μm minority carrier diffusion length. The detrimental effects of bulk, interface and contact-related states on solar cell performance have also been studied, from which the efficiencies between ~22% and ~12% for a series of materials, ranging from optimal to seriously poor-quality, are extracted. The findings suggest that rational device design plays a crucial role in implementing efficient Cu2O/ZnO wire radial junction solar cells.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Correlation between structural defects and optical properties of Cu2O nanowires grown by thermal oxidation

Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanowires were grown by a simple, catalyst-free thermal oxidation method starting from a copper foil substrate. Wire growth was performed at different conditions by varying oxygen partial pressure and heating temperature, and produced structural defects such as stacking faults and twin structures of grown nanowires were characterized by transmission electron microscopy. A moderate oxygen partial pressure ~5% with a relatively high temperature at 500 oC is found to be an optimal condition for growing high-quality Cu2O nanowires, while either lowering temperature or enhancing O2 partial pressure can yield higher density of planar defects. In order to further investigate optical properties of grown nanowires, photoluminescence measurements were also performed and correlated with structural characterization results, indicating that increase of structural defects such as stacking faults and twins tended to enhance broad defect-related emissions and suppress the exciton emissions near Cu2O band-edge.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Enhanced thermoelectric properties of coaxial Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 nanostructures studied by theoretical modeling

Critical thermoelectric parameters including Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and figure of merit ZT of one-dimensional coaxial Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 nanocomposite were modeled by following the single carrier pocket and sharp interface assumptions. A calculation scheme based on Landauer approach, instead of commonly used Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) with relaxation time approximation, was adopted to numerically obtain the transmission functions which can be used to evaluate thermoelectric properties. Considerable enhancement of ZT was obtained through our modeling and numerical calculation, and the corresponding dependence of thermoelectric performance on structure parameters was studied. Finally, the efficiency at the maximum power condition for this 1-D system was also investigated.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗