Novel heterojunctions, diodes, electrodes, and solar cells are comprised of semiconductive dichalcogenide flakes and metals or semi-metals like graphene. The dichalcogenide flakes and graphene flakes are deposed approximately normal to the device, enabling ohmic contact and mass production at low cost using printing equipment.

The invention relates to an optical detector (110) for an optical detection, in particular, of radiation within the infrared spectral range, specifically, with regard to sensing at least one optically conceivable property of an object (112). More particular, the optical detector (110) may be used for determining transmissivity, absorption, emission, reflectance, and/or a position of at least one object (112). Further, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing the optical detector (110) and to various uses of the optical detector (110). The optical detector (110) comprises an optical filter (114) having at least a first surface (116) and a second surface (118), the second surface (118) being located oppositely with respect to the first surface (116), wherein the optical filter (114) is designed for allowing an incident light beam (120) received by the first surface (116) to pass through the optical filter (114) to the second surface (118), thereby generating a modified light beam (122) by modifying a spectral composition of the incident light beam (120); a sensor layer (128) comprising a photosensitive material (130) being deposited on the second surface (118) of the optical filter (114), wherein the sensor layer (128) is designed to generate at least one sensor signal in a manner dependent on an illumination of the sensor layer (128) by the modified light beam (122); and an evaluation device (140) designed to generate at least one item of information provided by the incident light beam (120) by evaluating the sensor signal. The optical detector (110) constitutes an improved simple, cost-efficient and, still, reliable detector for detecting optical radiation, especially within the infrared spectral range, specifically with regard to sensing at least one of transmissivity, absorption, emission and reflectance. Hereby, the optical detector (110) is capable of effectively removing stray light as far as possible.

An improved process for the preparation of nanostructured metal species-based films in a flame aerosol reactor is provided. The present invention also further provides improved nanostructured photo-watersplitting cells, improved dye sensitized solar cells and improved nanostructured p/n junction solar cells.

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device having two dimensional (2D) lateral hetero-structures includes forming alternating regions of a first metal dichalcogenide film and a second metal dichalcogenide film extending along a surface of a first substrate. The first metal dichalcogenide and the second metal dichalcogenide films are different metal dichalcogenides. Each second metal dichalcogenide film region is bordered on opposing lateral sides by a region of the first metal dichalcogenide film, as seen in cross-sectional view.

A semiconductor film, including: an assembly of semiconductor quantum dots containing a metal atom; and a ligand that is coordinated to the semiconductor quantum dots and that is represented by the following Formula (A): ##STR00001##
wherein, in Formula (A), X.sup.1 represents NH, S, or O; each of X.sup.2 and X.sup.3 independently represents NH.sub.2, SH, or OH; and each of n and m independently represents an integer from 1 to 3.

According to one embodiment, a power generation element includes a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer, a first member provided between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer, and a second member separated from the first member and provided between the first member and the second conductive layer. The first member includes a first region including Al.sub.x1Ga.sub.1-x1N (0x1<1), and a second region including Al.sub.x2Ga.sub.1-x2N (x1<x21) and being provided between the first region and the second member. A <000-1> direction of the first member has a component in an orientation from the first conductive layer toward the second conductive layer.

The present disclosure is directed to photovoltaic junctions and methods for producing the same. Embodiments of the disclosure may be incorporated in various devices for applications such as solar cells and light detectors and may demonstrate advantages compared to standard materials used for photovoltaic junctions such as silica. An example embodiment of the disclosure includes a photovoltaic junction, the junction including a light absorbing material, an electron acceptor for shuttling electrons, and a metallic contact. In general, embodiments of the disclosure as disclosed herein include photovoltaic junctions which provide absorption across one or more wavelengths in the range from about 200 nm to about 1000 nm, or from near IR (NIR) to ultra-violet (UV). Generally, these embodiments include a multi-layered light absorbing material that can be formed from quantum dots that are successively deposited on the surface of an electron acceptor (e.g., a semiconductor).

A near infrared light sensor includes a 2D material semiconductor layer on a substrate, a tunneling layer on the 2D material semiconductor layer, and first and second electrodes on opposite edge regions of an upper surface of the tunneling layer. The 2D material semiconductor layer may be a TMDC layer having a thickness in a range of about 10 nm to about 100 nm. The tunneling layer and the substrate may each include hBN.

Provided is an infrared optical sensor including a substrate, a channel layer on the substrate, optical absorption structures dispersed and disposed on the channel layer, and electrodes disposed on the substrate, and disposed on both sides of the channel layer, wherein the channel layer and the optical absorption structures include transition metal dichalcogenides.

Microbolometer is a class of infrared detector whose resistance changes when the temperature changes. In this work, we deposited and characterized Germanium Oxide thin films mixed with Sn (GeSnO) for uncooled infrared detection. GeSnO were deposited by co-sputtering of Sn and Ge targets in the Ar+O environment using a radio frequency sputtering system. Optical characterization shows that the absorption in GeSnO was most sensitive in the wavelength ranges between 1.0-3.0 m. The transmission data was further used to determine the optical energy band gap (0.678 eV) of the thin-film using Tauc's equation. We also found the variations of absorption coefficient (1.480210.sup.5 m-.sup.1-1.009710.sup.7 m.sup.1), refractive index (1.242-1.350), and the extinction coefficient (0.3255-8.010) for the wavelength ranges between 1.0-3.0 m. The thin film's resistivity measured by the four point probe was found to be 4.55 -cm and TCR was in the range of 2.56-2.25 (%/K) in the temperature range 292-312K. In light of these results it can be shown that this thin film is in keeping with the current standards while also being more cost and time effective.