Susceptibility to environmental factors, such as moisture, humidity, oxygen, heat, and ultraviolet (UV) light (photoinstability), has affected perovskite solar cell (PSC) stability in practical applications. To overcome the instability and performance degradation due to oxygen, humidity, and moisture, different strategies and encapsulation schemes have been proposed, and promising results have been obtained. However, photostability remains a major hurdle because UV light is an inherent part of the standard incident spectrum of PSCs. To prevent photoinstability and increase quantum energy harvesting levels, cadmium chalcogenide (CC) photoluminescent (PL) filters for downconverting the UV part of the incident spectra obtained for PSCs are proposed in this work. The concept was illustrated by matching 500-nm-thick CC-PL filters to the front glass of a PSC to form a CC-PL/glass/indium tin oxide (ITO)/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)/perovskite/Ag structure. Cadmium sulfide (CdS), cadmium selenide, and cadmium telluride were taken as the CC materials. Practical measurements confirmed that the PSC with the CdS-PL filter can maintain 92% of its initial value under continuous light soaking for more than 100 h. Furthermore, this PSC exhibited the best improvement in power conversion efficiency.
Predictions for the photon absorption coefficient (α) and photoluminescence (PL) of quasitype II CdS/ZnS core/shell nanocrystals [quantum dots (QDs)] have been obtained using a straightforward developed procedure. The developed procedure begins by solving the three-dimensional (3-D) Schrodinger equation written in spherical coordinates. Then, α is obtained by solving an equation based on the strict k-selection approach, and PL is derived by solving the Kubo–Martin–Schwinger relationship. This formulation allows the prediction of fundamental QD energy properties as a function of the QD radius. The predicted properties include quantized energy levels, effective bandgap, effective photon absorption wavelength, and effective photon emission wavelength. In addition, CdS/ZnS QDs were synthetized and stabilized based on previously reported procedures. Experimental measurements of α and PL were found to be very well matched to the calculated results. Hence, the developed procedures can be of great interest for designers who correlate theoretical results with experimental measurements to predict next generation QD performance for nanophotonics applications.
In heterostructures for nanophotovoltaic (NPV) devices, a number of layers are concatenated in a multilayer configuration. In the analysis of a multilayer configuration, it is commonly assumed that the intensity of the optical field has an exponential decrease along the direction of propagation inside the structure. Effects such as reflections and interference are neglected. These neglected effects become especially important ones once the layer dimension reaches several nanometers. At this width regimen, quantum effects are present since layers are thin compared with the penetration depth and the wavelength of the incident light. Quantum effects influence photon absorption and affect the optical field dissipation that controls electron-hole pairs generation. Hence, dissipation of the optical field inside an NPV device is an important aspect to consider in studying and determining performance properties. We employed the one-dimensional optical transfer matrix theory and the quantum well theory to analyze the optical field dissipation in the active layer of heterostructures for NPV devices. Illumination of 100 mW·cm−2 air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5G) standard was considered for the analysis. The study was extended to low-dimensional heterostructures of the binary compound CdS/CdSe/CdS, the ternary compound Ga0.9Al0.1As/GaAs/Ga0.9Al0.1As, and the quaternary compound In0.85Ga0.15As0.30P0.70/In0.7Ga0.3As0.6P0.4/In0.85Ga0.15As0.30P0.70.
We analyzed the conversion performance of conventional organic photovoltaic (OPV) and inverted organic photovoltaic (IOPV) devices with an active layer of polymer, PTB7: PC70BM. We computed the current density–voltage (JV) curves, short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), maximum current density (Jmax), maximum power density (Pmax), and fill-factor (FF) under various scenarios. We employed the one-dimensional optical transfer matrix theory to calculate the light intensity that was then used as the input at the active layer for optical carrier generation. Then we obtained electrical performance parameters from the JV curves plotted by solving Poisson and charge transport equations. The effects of adjusting the exciton generation profile by tuning the active layer width and optical spacer thickness under 100 mW·cm−2 air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5G) illumination are also analyzed. In addition, the effect on the conversion performance by using different electron and hole mobility relations in the polymers composing the active layer is computed. To identify the optimal performance, we proposed an exciton generation profile that maintains a constant amplitude when shifted through the active layer. Subsequently, by adjusting the active layer width, optical spacer thickness, and electron and hole mobility, we found that the OPV structure achieved performance characteristics previously reported only for IOPV structures.
The major challenge for semiconductors to achieve temperatures below 10 K by luminescence upconversion, is that at these lattice temperatures the acoustic phonon component dominates and the scattering rate becomes comparable to the band-to-band radiative transition rate. This problem can be significantly alleviated by employing quantum-confined systems, where relaxation of wave-vector conservation in the confined direction reduces material conductivity by nearly three orders of magnitude. Although previous studies have reported theoretical and experimental analyses of cooling characteristics for bulk semiconductors, the electron band-to-band transition due to photon absorption or photon emission under cooling conditions in quantum-confined semiconductor systems which exhibit quantum effects at the dimensions of several nanometers have not been completely analyzed in conventional theoretical studies. We realized a numerical investigation of optical cooling conditions for a low-dimensional CdS/CdTe multiple-quantum well heterostructure where injected carriers in the active region are quantum mechanically confined in one dimension. Effects of such quantum mechanically confined carriers on photon absorption and photoluminescence (PL) were analyzed under cooling conditions. Most importantly, the CdS/CdTe heterostructure absorption and PL spectra for cooling conditions were defined in terms of the active layer width and number of quantum wells in the complete heterostructure.
Single- and multiple-quantum well (QW) nanophotonic devices, such as detectors and solar cells, are often fabricated by the concatenation of low-dimensional heterojunctions of different semiconductors. Quantum effects dominate the well structure, with dimensions of the order of several nanometers. At this width regime, even small variations in the fundamental material properties, such as band gap, dielectric constant, lattice constant, and effective mass of the materials, may give rise to errors in determining the fundamental design parameters. This, in turn, can significantly affect the device performance. In cadmium-sulfide/cadmium-telluride (CdS/CdTe) material system, the failure to include the mismatch of electronic effective masses can lead to >30% shift from the real position of the eigenstate energy levels, and >40% shift from the real position of quasi-Fermi levels E Fn and E Fp . In addition, depending on the width of the QW active layer, the absorption coefficient value can lead to >12% shift from its real value. These results prompt the need for accurate estimation of such errors in the precise analysis and design of CdS/CdTe heterojunction-based nanophotonic devices.
The dependence of photon absorption by a low-dimensional cadmium-sulfide/cadmium-telluride (CdS/CdTe) heterostructured absorber on the thickness and number of CdTe active layers is investigated. The equation for the photon absorption coefficient (α) used is based on the partial momentum k-selection approach. Theoretical results show that absorption greater than 4×104 cm−1 is obtained when the thickness of the active layer reaches 50 Å. Similarly, with each additional CdTe active layer in the heterostructured absorber, a relative increase of 0.5×104 cm−1 in photon absorption is achieved. The relation between photoelectric quantum efficiency and photon absorption is determined by the number and thickness of the CdTe active layers in the heterostructured absorber. A quantum efficiency greater than 0.9 is obtained using 15 active layers with a thickness of 50 Å.
An all fiber tunable Lyot filter is experimentally demonstrated. The filter can be
configured for narrow band or wide band tuning. It is implemented as a Sagnac loop
configuration comprised of polarization controllers, birefringent fibers, and a polarizer.
Results are present for band stop tuning and narrow band tuning for the wavelengths
ranging between 1500nm to 1600nm.
A 1.28GSPS 12-bits optoelectronic analog-to-digital converter is presented. The ADC architecture consists of an optical
circuit that optically samples an analog input signal, and optoelectronic circuits that demultiplex different phases of the
sampled signal (polyphase) to yield low data rate for electronic quantization. Electrical-in to electrical-out data format is
maintained through the sampling, demultiplexing and quantization stages of the architecture thereby avoiding the need
for electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical signal conversions. The ADC architecture encodes and multiplexes four
320MSPS 12-bits time interleaves quantized data into an aggregated 1.28GSPS 12-bits digital signal in real time. All
clock signals at frequencies of 1.28GHz, 640MHz, and 320MHz are generated from a single 320MHz femtosecond laser
source, thus eliminating the need for external synchronization and control signals. A Spurious Free Dynamic Range
(SFDR) of value 80.6dB, and Effective number of bits (ENOB) of value 8.8 bits, were measured for the system.
Photonics Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs) utilize a train of optical pulses to sample an electrical input
waveform applied to an electrooptic modulator or a reverse biased photodiode. In the former, the resulting train of
amplitude-modulated optical pulses is detected (converter to electrical) and quantized using a conversional electronics
ADC- as at present there are no practical, cost-effective optical quantizers available with performance that rival
electronic quantizers. In the latter, the electrical samples are directly quantized by the electronics ADC. In both cases
however, the sampling rate is limited by the speed with which the electronics ADC can quantize the electrical samples.
One way to increase the sampling rate by a factor N is by using the time-interleaved technique which consists of a
parallel array of N electrical ADC converters, which have the same sampling rate but different sampling phase. Each
operating at a quantization rate of fs/N where fs is the aggregated sampling rate. In a system with no real-time operation,
the N channels digital outputs are stored in memory, and then aggregated (multiplexed) to obtain the digital
representation of the analog input waveform. Alternatively, for real-time operation systems the reduction of storing time
in the multiplexing process is desired to improve the time response of the ADC. The complete elimination of memories
come expenses of concurrent timing and synchronization in the aggregation of the digital signal that became critical for a
good digital representation of the analog signal waveform.
In this paper we propose and demonstrate a novel optically synchronized encoder and multiplexer scheme for
interleaved photonics ADCs that utilize the N optical signals used to sample different phases of an analog input signal to
synchronize the multiplexing of the resulting N digital output channels in a single digital output port. As a proof of
concept, four 320 Megasamples/sec 12-bit of resolution digital signals were multiplexed to form an aggregated 1.28
Gigasamples/sec single digital output signal.
KEYWORDS: Optoelectronics, Analog electronics, Clocks, Photodiodes, Optical clocks, Signal processing, Electronics, Signal generators, Data conversion, Optical networks
A novel optoelectronic scheme for optical sampling and parallel demultiplexing of different phases
(polyphase) of an input analog signal is presented. With this scheme higher sampling rate can be attained by scaling. A
unique feature of this approach is that the electrical-in to electrical-out signal transfer is maintained for the
optoelectronic sampling and demultiplexing process. We demonstrate the basic tenets of this approach by implementing
an optoelectronics two-stages divide-by-four decimator circuit where the first stage demultiplexs a sampled signal having
a repetition rate f into its even and odd subsamples with each subsample having a repetition rate of f/2 , and the second
stage demultiplexs the even and odd subsamples into four subsamples, odd/odd, odd/even, even/odd and even/even,
each subsample having a repetition rate of . f/4 As a practical testing, a 100MHz RF electrical signal was sampled at
the rate of 1.28GSPS (Giga/Samples/Sec) and demultiplexed into four 320GSPS sampled signals.
A novel opto-electronic polyphase analog-to-digital converter scheme that entails parallel optical sampling of different phases of an input analog signal is presented. With this scheme higher sampling rate can be attained by scaling. We demonstrate the basic tenets of this approach by upscaling a 160MSPS optoelectronic analog-to-digital ADC system to design and implement a 40.96GSPS four-channel polyphase optoelectronic analog-to-digital system. An optoelectronic divide-by-two decimation technique is implemented for demultiplexing digital samples having a repetition rate f into its even and odd subsamples with each subsample having a repetition rate of f/2. A two stage concatenation of the basic divide-by-two decimation scheme is employed to demultiplex the 40.96GSPS sampled RF signals into 8 channels of demultiplexed data, each channel having a data-rate of 5.12GSPS. Detailed design parameters and experimental results are presented for both the 160MSPS and the 40GSPS, including the design and implementation of optical clock networks, polyphase RF sampling networks, and decimation or demultiplexing networks. In addition, the electronic quantization network for the 160MSPS ADC system is presented. The 160MSPS system was found to have effective bit-resolution of 6.97, third-harmonic distortion of 43.73dB, signal-to-noise-distortion of 43.73dB, and spurious free dynamic range of 41dB.
In order to reduce the time jitter and increase the speed of the sampling circuits for Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs), optical techniques can be used since high speed optical pulses can be generated (in the order of GHz) with pulse width in the regime of femtoseconds. In this paper, we present an optoelectronic sampling circuit for an optical ADC with an aggregate 5.12 Gigasample/s and a time jitter of 80 fs. The RF signal to be sampled is connected to 8 sampling circuit in parallel. Each sampling channel consists of a reverse-biased photodiode that acts as a fast optoelectronic switch in series with a load resistor. A bias tee was used to couple the RF signal to be sampled, and the d.c. voltage to reverse bias the photodiodes. The DC offset RF signals was then connected to each channel and was sampled by actuating the photodiodes with a modelocked optical pulses having repetition rate of 640 MHz. A relative delay of 0.195 ns was set between the sampling clocks. Thus the sampling circuits sampled different phases of the RF. The outputs of the eight sampling circuits were multiplexed together to give an aggregate sampling rate of 5.12GSPS. Finally, a synchronizer trigger circuits was designed in order that all eight sampling circuits can be triggered for simultaneous measurement.
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