Extraordinary Carrier Diffusion on CdTe Surfaces Uncovered by 4D Electron Microscopy
Type
ArticleAuthors
El-Zohry, AhmedShaheen, Basamat S.

Burlakov, Victor M.
Yin, Jun

Hedhili, Mohamed N.

Shikin, Semen
Ooi, Boon S.

Bakr, Osman

Mohammed, Omar F.

KAUST Department
Chemical Science ProgramComputer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) Division
Electrical Engineering Program
Functional Nanomaterials Lab (FuNL)
KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC)
KAUST Solar Center (KSC)
Material Science and Engineering Program
Photonics Laboratory
Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Surface Science
Ultrafast Laser Spectroscopy and Four-dimensional Electron Imaging Research Group
Date
2019-02-01Online Publication Date
2019-02-01Print Publication Date
2019-03Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/652967
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The lack of understanding and control over losses of charge carriers at the surfaces/interfaces of solar cell materials is the major factor limiting overall device conversion efficiency. This work describes a breakthrough in real-space visualization of charge-carrier dynamics at the atomic surface level of CdTe, a leading direct bandgap semiconductor in commercial thin-film solar cells. We present a fundamentally new understanding of charge-carrier diffusion and carrier trapping of CdTe single crystals using a four-dimensional scanning ultrafast electron microscope (4D-SUEM)—the only instrument of its kind currently in operation. We found that the diffusion of charge carriers at surfaces vary within extreme ranges, from extraordinary to virtually trapped when surface orientation was changed from (110) to (211). The work presented here is a milestone in addressing the device performance bottlenecks stemming from surfaces and a new avenue to create CdTe-based optoelectronic devices.Citation
El-Zohry AM, Shaheen BS, Burlakov VM, Yin J, Hedhili MN, et al. (2019) Extraordinary Carrier Diffusion on CdTe Surfaces Uncovered by 4D Electron Microscopy. Chem 5: 706–718. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chempr.2018.12.020.Sponsors
The research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). We thank Dr. Daliang Zhang (KAUST Core Labs) for helping with the HR-TEM analysis and simulations.Publisher
Elsevier BVJournal
ChemAdditional Links
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451929418305837ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/j.chempr.2018.12.020