Abstract
Ferroelectric materials have gained high interest for photovoltaic applications due to their open-circuit voltage not being limited to the band gap of the material. In the past, different lead-based ferroelectric perovskite thin films such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O3 and PbTiO3 were investigated with respect to their photovoltaic efficiency. Nevertheless, due to their high band gaps they only absorb photons in the UV spectral range. The well-known ferroelectric PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3 (PFN), which is in a structure similar to the other three, has not been considered as a possible candidate until now. We found that the band gap of PFN is around 2.75 eV and that the conductivity can be increased from 23 S/µm to 35 S/µm during illumination. The relatively low band gap value makes PFN a promising candidate as an absorber material.
Highlights
The photovoltaic effect, which allows for the conversion of light to electricity, is considered one of the most promising directions of “green” energetics
We report on a study of the optical properties of epitaxial PFN thin films produced by pulsed laser deposition
Transmission line method (TLM) measurements were performed to hand, transmission spectra were recorded with a Shimadzu UV2550
Summary
The photovoltaic effect, which allows for the conversion of light to electricity, is considered one of the most promising directions of “green” energetics. The absorbance of photons and the photovoltaic efficiency is strongly dependent on the band gap For these materials it is approximately 3.6 eV for PZT [11,12,15] and PTO [16,17,18] and larger than 3.35 eV for PLZT [19,20]. (BFO) has attracted significant attention due to a relatively narrow band gap of 2.2–2.7 eV, promising a significant improvement in photovoltaic performance [22,23] compared to the aforementioned materials Another well-known multiferroic, namely lead iron niobate (PbFe0.5 Nb0.5 O3 , PFN), has remained out of sight of the photovoltaic community.
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