| PHD Student
Université du Québec
Institut national de la recherche scientifique
Énergie, Matériaux et Télécommunications
1650, boulevard Lionel-Boulet
Varennes, Québec, Canada
J3X 1S2
Telephone: +1 (514) 228-6850
Fax: +1 (450) 929-8102
shunli@emt.inrs.ca
www.emt.inrs.ca
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Presently the use of solar cells to create electricity is among the most
efficient and most widely employed methods for solar energy harvesting
in the world. Unfortunately, current semiconductor-based photovoltaic
materials can produce a maximum voltage no greater than the semiconductor’s
electronic bandgap, thus limiting output voltage and the solar energy
conversion efficiency.
Ferroelectric and multiferroic materials, which exhibit strong bulk photovoltaic
effect, have several advantages compared with traditional semiconductor-based
solar energy conversion materials. A ferroelectric thin film could have
an internal electric field throughout the bulk region originating from
electrical polarization that is not completely canceled out by screening
charges near the ferroelectric-electrode interfaces. In addition, the
photo-voltage output in a ferroelectric thin film is not limited by an
energy barrier (band gap) like it is in semiconductor photovoltaic materials.
Therefore, they offer a fundamentally different route to enhance the solar
energy conversion efficiency and show potential for visible-light photovoltaic
devices.
My project focuses on multiferroic thin-films for solar energy conversions.
The main objective of this project is the synthesis, characterization
and investigation of nanoscale ferroelectric thin films with high efficiency,
and in particular aims at understanding how the nanostructures can influence
the photovoltaic behavior of multiferroic thin films.
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