Abstract
Inadequate absorption of Near Infrared (NIR) photons by conventional silicon solar cells has been a major stumbling block towards the attainment of a high efficiency “full spectrum” solar cell. An effective enhancement in the absorption of such photons is desired as they account for a considerable portion of the tappable solar energy. In this work, we report a remarkable gain observed in the absorption of photons in the near infrared and visible region (400 nm–1000 nm) by a novel multi-phased oxide of titanium. Synthesised via a single step ultra-fast laser pulse interaction with pure titanium, characterisation studies have identified this oxide of titanium to be multi-phased and composed of Ti3O, (TiO.716)3.76 and TiO2 (rutile). Computed to have an average band gap value of 2.39 eV, this ultrafast laser induced multi-phased titanium oxide has especially exhibited steady absorption capability in the NIR range of 750–1000 nm, which to the best of our knowledge, was never reported before. The unique NIR absorption properties of the laser functionalised titanium coupled with the simplicity and versatility of the ultrafast laser interaction process involved thereby provides tremendous potential towards the photon sensitization of titanium and thereafter for the inception of a “full spectrum” solar device.
Highlights
Been exploited to tune it to Near Infrared (NIR) radiation[8]
This study revealed the obvious increase in the oxygen content in the laser material functionalised zone Fig. 1(a) provides the Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) analysis of a laser functionalised titanium sample, where we see a very little oxygen content along the base Ti substrate area
Due to the inability of EDX to help us characterise and identify the individual constituent phases of the functionalised titanium oxide zone, X-ray Diffraction (XRD) spectrum was obtained for the multi-phased oxide formed at various laser conditions
Summary
Surface morphological study of the laser functionalised areas was conducted using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), followed by the crystal lattice analysis using the High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HRTEM). The phase composition was determined through X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis using a CuKα radiation source, conventional theta/2theta diffractometer. The average wavelength of the X-rays was 1.54184 Å and the profiles were obtained with a 2θ range of 30–78°. Further material characterization was done using Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy XPS and a micro-Raman using a 532 nm wavelength laser. The absorbance of the laser functionalised titanium region was measured for a broadband spectrum range of 400–1000 nm using a spectrophotometer
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