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Band engineering of type-II ZnO/ZnSe heterostructures for solar cell applications

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Abstract

Two kinds of type-II heterostructures (HSs) of ZnO (wurtzite)/ZnSe (wurtzite) [ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (WZ)] and ZnO (wurtzite)/ZnSe (zinc blende) [ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (ZB)] were designed for photovoltaic applications by first-principle calculations. The calculated effective bandgap of 1.51 eV for the ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (WZ) HS is more favorable for solar cell applications compared to that of 1.69 eV for the ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (ZB) HS. Furthermore, the electrons and holes are more effectively separated at the interface of ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (WZ) HS due to the stronger misfit stress field. Finally, a strained ZB ZnSe layer was introduced to transport the separated holes from WZ ZnSe layer, and an optimal structure of ZnO (WZ)/ZnSe (WZ)/ZnSe (ZB) was proposed to realize a solar cell with near-infrared response.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The work was supported by “973” Program (2011CB925600), the National Natural Science Foundations of China (60827004, 61106008, 61106118, and 90921002), the Natural Science Foundations of Fujian Province (2010J01343 and 2011J01362), the fundamental research funds for the central universities (2011121042 and 2011121026), and the Science and Technology Programs of Fujian Province and Xiamen.

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  1. Fujian Key Laboratory of Semiconductor Materials and Applications, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, People’s Republic of China

    Jianchao Ni, Zhiming Wu, Xiangan Lin, Jinjian Zheng, Shuping Li, Jing Li & Junyong Kang

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  1. Jianchao Ni
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  2. Zhiming Wu
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  3. Xiangan Lin
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  4. Jinjian Zheng
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  5. Shuping Li
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  6. Jing Li
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  7. Junyong Kang
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Correspondence to Zhiming Wu or Junyong Kang.

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Ni, J., Wu, Z., Lin, X. et al. Band engineering of type-II ZnO/ZnSe heterostructures for solar cell applications. Journal of Materials Research 27, 730–733 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.417

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