A two-step process, consisting of a photoelectrosynthetic process combined with a thermochemical process, is configured to produce a reduction product (e.g., methane gas, methanol, or carbon monoxide) from carbon dioxide and liquid waste streams. In a first step, photoelectrosynthetically active heterostructures (PAHs) and sunlight are used to drive oxidation/reduction reactions in which one primary product is hydrogen gas. In the second step, hydrogen generated in the first step is thermally catalytically reacted with carbon dioxide to form a reduction product from carbon dioxide (e.g., CO, formaldehyde, methane, or methanol). Synthesis gas (CO and H.sub.2) can be further reacted to form alkanes. The methods and systems may employ PAHs known in the art or improved PAHs having lower costs, improved stability, solar energy conversion efficiency, and/or other desired attributes as disclosed herein.

A semiconductor template having a top surface aligned along a (100) crystallographic orientation plane and an inverted pyramidal cavity defined by a plurality of walls aligned along a (111) crystallographic orientation plane. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor template by selectively removing silicon material from a silicon template to form a top surface aligned along a (100) crystallographic plane of the silicon template and a plurality of walls defining an inverted pyramidal cavity each aligned along a (111) crystallographic plane of the silicon template.

The present disclosure relates to modifications to nanostructure based transparent conductors to achieve increased haze/light-scattering with different and tunable degrees of scattering, different materials, and different microstructures and nanostructures.

The present disclosure provides a back-contact solar cell, a fabrication method, and a solar-cell assembly. In one aspect, a back-contact solar cell includes a solar-cell body and an isolating groove. The solar-cell body includes a silicon substrate, a first semiconductor layer in a first region of a back surface of the silicon substrate, a second semiconductor layer having a portion in a second region of the back surface, and a transparent conductive film layer stacked on the first and second semiconductor layers. The isolating groove extends through the second semiconductor layer and the transparent conductive film layer. An area of a cross section of the isolating groove decreases towards the silicon substrate, and the cross section is parallel to the silicon substrate.

Provided is a tandem photovoltaic device comprising: a top cell, a bottom cell, and a first light-trapping structure, in stacking, wherein a band-gap width of the top cell is larger than that of the bottom cell; and at least one of a second light-trapping structure located on a side of a shading surface of the bottom cell and a third light-trapping structure located on a side of a phototropic surface of the top cell; the three light-trapping structures are selected from metal or semiconductor material, and localized surface plasmons generated by the three light-trapping structures correspond to different peaks of light-wave response; and the three light-trapping structures form microstructures on a first cross section, average sizes d1, d2 and d3 of projections of the microstructures and average distances w1, w2 and w3 between the microstructures have relationships: $2{\left(\frac{w1}{w2}\right)}^2.Math.\frac{d2}{d1}16,\mathrm{and}/\mathrm{or}2{\left(\frac{w3}{w1}\right)}^2.Math.\frac{d1}{d3}16.$

A plurality of holes in a top surface of a silicon medium form a plurality of sub-meta lenses to result in multiple focal points rather than a single point (resulting from using a single meta lens). As a result, optical paths for incoming light are reduced as compared with a single optical path associated with a single meta lens, which in turn reduces angular response of incident photons. Thus, a pixel sensor including the plurality of sub-meta lenses experiences improved light focus and greater signal-to-noise ratio. Additionally, dimensions of the pixel sensor are reduced (particularly a height of the pixel sensor), which allows for greater miniaturization of an image sensor that includes the pixel sensor.

A first photodetector according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a substrate having a first surface that serves as a light-receiving surface and a second surface opposed to the first surface, and including an uneven structure provided on the first surface and a light-receiving section that performs photoelectric conversion to generate electric charge corresponding to an amount of light reception for each pixel; a passivation film stacked on the first surface of the substrate; and a reflectance adjustment layer including a plurality of protrusions configuring the uneven structure and the passivation film embedded in a plurality of recesses configuring the uneven structure, and having a refractive index between the substrate and the passivation film.

A display substrate, including repetitive units; where each repetitive unit includes first, second and third light-emitting element and photoelectric conversion elements; the first and third light-emitting elements are of a same number; the second light-emitting elements and the photoelectric conversion elements are of a same number; second light-emitting elements are twice as many as the first light-emitting element; the first, second and third light-emitting elements are sequentially arranged along first direction; the second light-emitting elements and the photoelectric conversion elements are sequentially arranged along second direction, respectively; an angle between the first and second direction is >0 and 90; the photoelectric conversion elements and the second light-emitting elements are adjacently arranged and distributed in one-to-one correspondence; any set of corresponding second light-emitting element and photoelectric conversion element are arranged along the first direction; the first or third light-emitting element is located between two adjacent photoelectric conversion elements.

A solar cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a first passivation layer including a first aluminum oxide layer positioned on a first conductivity-type region composed of a polycrystalline silicon layer having an n-type conductivity and having hydrogen, and a first dielectric layer positioned on the first aluminum oxide layer and including a material different from the first aluminum oxide layer.

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device is provided. The method includes forming a first region of a lower semiconductor layer on a substrate, etching an upper surface of the first region using at least one gas used in forming the first region, in-situ in a chamber in which a process of forming the first region has been performed, forming a second region of the lower semiconductor layer on the first region, forming an active layer on the lower semiconductor layer, and forming an upper semiconductor layer on the active layer.