Factors Affecting the Stability of CdTe/CdS Solar Cells Deduced from Stress Tests at Elevated Temperature

CdTe/CdS solar cells were subjected to heat stress at 200 °C in the dark under different environments (in N₂ and in air), and under illumination (in N₂). We postulate that two independent mechanisms can explain degradation phenomena in these cells: i) Excessive Cu doping of CdS: Accumulation of Cu in the CdS with stress, in the presence of Cl, will increase the photoconductivity of CdS. With limited amounts of Cu in CdS, this does NOT affect the photovoltaic behavior, but explains the crossover of light/dark current–voltage (J–V) curves. Overdoping of CdS with Cu can be detrimental to cell performance by creating deep acceptor states, acting as recombination centers, and compensating donor states. Under illumination, the barrier to Cu cations at the cell junction is reduced, and, therefore, Cu accumulation in the CdS is enhanced. Recovery of light‐stress induced degradation in CdTe/CdS cells in the dark is explained by dissociation of the acceptor defects. ii) Back contact barrier: Oxidation of the CdTe back surface in O₂/H₂O‐containing environment to form an insulating oxide results in a back‐contact barrier. This barrier is expressed by a rollover in the J–V curve. Humidity is an important factor in air‐induced degradation, as it accelerates the oxide formation. Heat treatment in the dark in inert atmosphere can stabilize the cells against certain causes of degradation, by completing the back contact anneal.     

Zr‐Doped Indium Oxide (IZRO) Transparent Electrodes for Perovskite‐Based Tandem Solar Cells

Parasitic absorption in transparent electrodes is one of the main roadblocks to enabling power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) for perovskite‐based tandem solar cells beyond 30%. To reduce such losses and maximize light coupling, the broadband transparency of such electrodes should be improved, especially at the front of the device. Here, the excellent properties of Zr‐doped indium oxide (IZRO) transparent electrodes for such applications, with improved near‐infrared (NIR) response, compared to conventional tin‐doped indium oxide (ITO) electrodes, are shown. Optimized IZRO films feature a very high electron mobility (up to ≈77 cm² V^?1 s^?1), enabling highly infrared transparent films with a very low sheet resistance (≈18 Ω □^?1 for annealed 100 nm films). For devices, this translates in a parasitic absorption of only ≈5% for IZRO within the solar spectrum (250–2500 nm range), to be compared with ≈10% for commercial ITO. Fundamentally, it is found that the high conductivity of annealed IZRO films is directly linked to promoted crystallinity of the indium oxide (In₂O₃) films due to Zr‐doping. Overall, on a four‐terminal perovskite/silicon tandem device level, an absolute 3.5 mA cm^?2 short‐circuit current improvement in silicon bottom cells is obtained by replacing commercial ITO electrodes with IZRO, resulting in improving the PCE from 23.3% to 26.2%.     

Cooperative Decode‐and‐Forward Relaying for Secure Multicasting

In this paper, secure multicasting with the help of cooperative decode‐and‐forward relays is considered for the case in which a source securely sends a common message to multiple destinations in the presence of a single eavesdropper. We show that the secrecy rate maximization problem in the secure multicasting scenario under an overall power constraint can be solved using semidefinite programing with semidefinite relaxation and a bisection technique. Further, a suboptimal approach using zero‐forcing beamforming and linear programming based power allocation is also proposed. Numerical results illustrate the secrecy rates achieved by the proposed schemes under secure multicasting scenarios.     

Selective Pd Deposition on Au Nanobipyramids and Pd Site‐Dependent Plasmonic Photocatalytic Activity

The synthesis of anisotropic metal nanostructures is strongly desired for exploring plasmon‐enabled applications. Herein, the preparation of anisotropic Au/SiO₂ and Au/SiO₂/Pd nanostructures is realized through selective silica coating on Au nanobipyramids. For silica coating at the ends of Au nanobipyramids, the amount of coated silica and the overall shape of the coated nanostructures exhibit a bell‐shaped dependence on the cationic surfactant concentration. For both end and side silica coating on Au nanobipyramids, the size of the silica component can be varied by changing the silica precursor amount. Silica can also be selectively deposited on the corners or facets of Au nanocubes, suggesting the generality of this method. The blockage of the predeposited silica component on Au nanobipyramids enables further selective Pd deposition. Suzuki coupling reactions carried out with the different bimetallic nanostructures functioning as plasmonic photocatalysts indicate that the plasmonic photocatalytic activity is dependent on the site of Pd nanoparticles on Au nanobipyramids. Taken together, these results suggest that plasmonic hot spots play an important role in hot‐electron‐driven plasmonic photocatalysis. This study opens up a promising route to the construction of anisotropic bimetallic nanostructures as well as to the design of bimetallic plasmonic‐catalytic nanostructures as efficient plasmonic photocatalysts.     

RIE gate-recessed(Al0.3Ga0.7)0.5In0.5P/InGaAsdouble doped-channel FETs using CHF3+BCl3 mixingplasma

BCl₃+CHF₃ gas mixtures for the reactive ion etching process were applied to the gate-recess for fabricating (Al_0.3Ga_0.7)_0.5In_0.5P quaternary heterostructure double doped-channel FET's (D-DCFET), where a high uniformity of Vth was achieved. With the merits of this wide bandgap (Al_0.3Ga_0.7)_0.5In_0.5P layer, microwave power performance of this heterostructure D-DCFET demonstrates a compatible performance for devices fabricated on AlGaAs/InGaAs heterostructures     

Interconnection Technology Based on InSn Solder for Flexible Display Applications

A novel interconnection technology based on a 52InSn solder was developed for flexible display applications. The display industry is currently trying to develop a flexible display, and one of the crucial technologies for the implementation of a flexible display is to reduce the bonding process temperature to less than 150°C. InSn solder interconnection technology is proposed herein to reduce the electrical contact resistance and concurrently achieve a process temperature of less than 150°C. A solder bump maker (SBM) and fluxing underfill were developed for these purposes. SBM is a novel bumping material, and it is a mixture of a resin system and InSn solder powder. A maskless screen printing process was also developed using an SBM to reduce the cost of the bumping process. Fluxing underfill plays the role of a flux and an underfill concurrently to simplify the bonding process compared to a conventional flip‐chip bonding using a capillary underfill material. Using an SBM and fluxing underfill, a 20 μm pitch InSn solder SoP array on a glass substrate was successfully formed using a maskless screen printing process, and two glass substrates were bonded at 130°C.     

Superparamagnetic Nanostructures for Off‐Resonance Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging

This study proposes a new method to generate positive contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using superparamagnetic contrast agents. Superparamagnetic nanostructures consisting of octahedron manganese ferrite nanoparticles embedded in spherical nanogels are fabricated using a bottom‐up approach. The composite nanoparticles are strongly magnetized in an external magnetic field and produce a unique NMR frequency shift in water protons, which can be demonstrated in MR spectroscopy and imaging to be different from the bulk pool. Moreover, the particles exhibit excellent colloidal stability in aqueous media and good cell biocompatibility. Hence, these particles are potentially useful as biomarkers by taking advantage of the positive contrast effects produced in MRI.     

A 3D Hybrid of Chemically Coupled Nickel Sulfide and Hollow Carbon Spheres for High Performance Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Lithium–sulfur batteries are a promising next‐generation energy storage device owing to their high theoretical capacity and the low cost and abundance of sulfur. However, the low conductivity and loss of active sulfur material during operation greatly limit the rating capabilities and cycling stability of lithium–sulfur batteries. In this work, a unique sulfur host hybrid material comprising nanosized nickel sulfide (NiS) uniformly distributed on 3D carbon hollow spheres (C‐HS) is fabricated using an in situ thermal reduction and sulfidation method. In the hybrid material, the nanosized NiS provides a high adsorption capability for polysulfides and the C‐HS serves as a physical confinement for polysulfides and also a 3D electron transfer pathway. Moreover, NiS has strong chemical coupling with the C‐HS, favoring fast charge transfer and redox kinetics of the sulfur electrode. With a sulfur loading of up to 2.3 mg cm^?2, the hybrid material‐based lithium–sulfur batteries offer a capacity decay as low as 0.013% per cycle and a capacity of 695 mA h g^?1 at 0.5 C after 300 cycles. This unique 3D hybrid material with strong chemical coupling provides a promising sulfur host for high performance lithium–sulfur batteries.