The incorporation of layered nano-silicates in polymer matrix greatly enhances the properties of the polymer. At present, there are many applications of polymer nanocomposites including coatings and architectural, they are also parts of automotive and construction industry among others. The acrylics employed at the present study were based on butyl acrylate (BA), styrene (STY), and methacrylic acid (MAA), and the nano-clay was Na-montomorillonite (MMT). The MMT clay was added to the polymer, which is the mixing matrix in a physical state solution called blend. Furthermore, their mechanical, thermal and wettability of especially prepared acrylic montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites were performed. By increasing the MMT in the polymer matrix concentration the Young’s modulus tends to increase it by an order of magnitude. However, by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), the thermograms show an increase in the glass transition temperature of nanocomposites for all weight percentages of MMT. Also, the wetting angle was determined, in order to know how much water is retained on the surface of the nanocomposite; the results showed that by increasing the particle of nano clay in the polymer matrix will induce a hydrophobic property to the nanocomposite.

Zinc oxide/silicon nanowires (ZnO/SiNWs) nanocomposites is a promising material for heterojunction solar cells. They combine the low-reflectivity of SiNWs, where photogenerated charge carriers are produced and harvested, and the high transparency of ZnO, which serves as a functional transparent conductive electrode. In this paper, we present a study of the anti-reflective properties of ZnO/SiNWs core-shell nanostructures. SiNWs were fabricated by a two-step metal-assisted chemical etching and coated with ZnO by electrochemical deposition. Particularly, the change in the specular reflectance of ZnO/SiNWs nanocomposites as a function of thermal annealing temperature under ambient atmosphere is investigated. First, it was shown that the reflectance in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm of as-synthesized ZnO/SiNWs nanocomposites increases when compared to the bare SiNWs formed from Si wafers with resistivity of 0.3 and 12 Ω∙cm by an 0.51 % and 0.47 %, respectively. Second, it was found that annealed ZnO/SiNWs had a 0.26 % and 0.17 % lower reflectance in the wavelength range of 400-1000 nm than as-synthesized ZnO/SiNWs and yet higher than bare SiNWs. Potential causes such results are discussed in the context of existing literature.

We determined that the conduction band offset (CBO) and the valence band offset (VBO) at the CdS/ Cu2ZnSnSe4 (CZTSe) heterointerface are +0.56 and +0.89eV, respectively, by using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and inversed photoemission spectroscopy (IPES). A positive CBO value, so-called “spike” structure, means that the position of conduction band becomes higher than that of absorber layer. The evaluated CBO of +0.56 eV suggests that the conduction band alignment at CdS/CZTSe interface is enough to become an electron barrier. Despite such a large spike structure in the conduction band at the interface, a conversion efficiency of 8.7 % could be obtained for the CdS/CZTSe heterojunction solar cells.

Nanocrystalline MnxZn1-xFe2O4 with the varying concentration of Mn (x= 0.25, 0.50) have been synthesized by citrate route method. The effect of annealing temperature on structural and magnetic properties of as-synthesized materials was studied. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed the improved crystallinity and purity of the samples at high temperature annealing. Also, the increase in the annealing temperature yielded nanocrystals with bigger crystallite size. The samples annealed at higher temperature were analyzed by TEM which showed the formation of irregular polycrystalline particles with average size in the range of 150-180 nm. The magnetic measurements were taken using vibrating sample magnetometer and displayed the superparamagnetic behavior of the prepared materials. Also, the increase in magnetization was observed with Mn substitution.

Copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) photovoltaic (PV) devices exhibit unique reverse breakdown characteristics in terms of the dependence on temperature, light intensity, photon energy, and buffer layer material. In this work, the theoretical basis of potential reverse breakdown mechanisms are described and compared to available data. Quantitative analysis performed with semiconductor device simulation indicates that none of the conventional reverse breakdown mechanisms can account for the observations. Further work to better understand the reverse current-voltage characteristics of CIGS PV devices will provide insight to improve performance and reliability.

Magnetic nanoparticles were obtained by chemical coprecipitation technique from aqueous solutions of iron salts, the synthesis was carried out in an alkaline medium, obtaining magnetic nanoparticles of around 2-10 nm in size. The nanoparticles obtained were stabilized with polyvinylpirrolidone (PVP), the particle size was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), the crystal structure of the magnetic nanoparticles obtained was verified by X-ray diffraction (DRX). The chemical composition of the nanoparticles powder was investigated using electron scanning microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) equipment. Optical properties as absorption was studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy.

Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) photovoltaic absorbers frequently develop Ga gradients during growth. These gradients vary as a function of growth recipe, and are important to device performance. Prediction of Ga profiles using classic diffusion equations is not possible because In and Ga atoms occupy the same lattice sites and thus diffuse interdependently, and there is not yet a detailed experimental knowledge of the chemical potential as a function of composition that describes this interaction. We show how diffusion equations can be modified to account for site sharing between In and Ga atoms. The analysis has been implemented in an Excel spreadsheet, and outputs predicted Cu, In, and Ga profiles for entered deposition recipes. A single set of diffusion coefficients and activation energies are chosen, such that simulated elemental profiles track with published data and those from this study. Extent and limits of agreement between elemental profiles predicted from the growth recipes and the spreadsheet tool are demonstrated.

We show the results of nanotextured device designs combined with carefully placed nanogrids in order to minimize optical losses. Finite element method (FEM) based optical modeling indicates that the reflection of both the layer stack and the metal is diminished by the proposed configuration in which the metallic nanowires at the front of a device are placed into the relatively shallow crevices, whereby the metal is not covered by other materials of the cell stack. The electric field distribution and energy dissipation (i.e. absorption) diagrams of the texture show how the light is distributed and where it is absorbed. It shows that light is ‘concentrated’ in the tips of the texture (depending on the size and wavelength of the light). Simultaneously, for wavelengths above 750 nm there appears to be a reduction of the E-field in the lower part of the texture and, therefore, putting a metallic nanowire in this position has hardly any negative optical effect.

Furthermore, the impact of the texture height up to 1000 nm and the nanowire width up to 150nm was systematically investigated for a texture and wire period of 500 nm. The spectra reveal dimension dependent and wavelength specific optical features. This is the case even if the flat nanowire remains fully exposed to the front glass medium (i.e. not embedded underneath absorbers). At a texture height of 900 nm, the reflection related current loss is reduced by an order of magnitude compared to flat layer stacks, virtually regardless of the width of the metal nanowire. This opens up exciting new ways of creating nano-metal containing devices without the usual optical losses.

In the present investigation, nanostructured ceramic HfN coatings were deposited onto silicon (100) wafer by magnetron sputtering DC method, from a metallic Hf target. The deposition process followed by a similar pattern as the multilayer film deposition, using cycles with the nitrogen gas turned on for 90 s and turned off for 15 s; four sets of samples were obtained using 5, 10, 15 and 20 cycles. The X ray diffraction (XRD) identified the presence of two different cubic crystalline phases of HfN, corroborated by Rietveld analysis. The Vickers hardness test showed that the hardness values increases with more cycles, due to a higher compressive stress evaluated by Stoney formula. All samples were investigated with no visible fracture until 10 grf for the 5 cycles sample; however, no fractures were visible at all for the 15 and 20 cycle samples for that given load, instead fractures started to appear at 25grf for the 10 and 15 cycles coating. Eventually it is distinguished that, the thickness and morphology of the coatings were measured by field emission scanning electron microscopy FE-SEM. As well as, the thickness increased from 0.4 µm to almost 1.33 µm as the number of cycles also increased, where we can observe the formation of columnar growth, moreover it is possible to distinguish the formation of two different clusters which might be related to different phases.

Graphene is a two dimensional material of special interest due to its unusual electronic, mechanical, chemical, optical among other properties, which suggest a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, computer, ecology, etc. The study of the optical properties of graphene is important due to its potential applications such as ultrafast photonics, optical filters, composite materials, photovoltaics and energy storage device. In this work we study the transmission and absorption properties of a quasi-regular multilayer dielectric-graphene-dielectric system. The multilayer structure is built on the quasi-regular Period-Doubling (PD) sequence. The optical response of graphene takes into account intra-band and inter-band transitions. We use the transfer-matrix method to calculate the transmission and absorption spectra. It is obtained a strong dependence on the number of layers in the system, the width of dielectric media and the optical contrast. Furthermore, we calculate the spectra for both transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarization in the infrared region.

Differential scanning calorimetry experiments on mixed Cu2-xS, ZnS, and SnS2 precursors were conducted to better understand how Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) and Cu2SnS3 form. The onset temperatures of Cu2SnS3 reactions and CZTS suggest that the ZnS phase may mediate Cu2SnS3 formation at lower temperatures before a final CZTS phase forms. We also found no evidence of a stable Cu2ZnSn3S8 phase. The major diffraction peaks associated with Cu2ZnSnS4, and Cu2SnS3 (overlaps with ZnS, as well) began to grow around 380 °C, although the final reaction to form Cu2ZnSnS4 probably did not occur until higher temperatures were reached. An exothermic reaction was observed corresponding to formation of this phase. There was some variability in the onset temperature for reactions to form Cu2SnS3. At least 5 steps are involved in this reaction and several segments of the reaction had relatively reproducible energies.

Even though absorber layers fabricated by different methods may yield comparable efficiencies and appear to be similar under conventional probes, such as low power Raman, PL, XRD, they could in fact be quite different in their microscopic structures. We have developed a novel nondestructive spectroscopy approach, high-power-high-temperature (HPHT) Raman spectroscopy, which is capable of revealing the microscopic structural variations of complex alloys like CZTSe over a large area. CZTSe films prepared by sputtering and co-evaporation methods were examined and compared in both lateral and depth directions. In general, high power (HP) illumination brought qualitatively different changes to the CZTSe samples, not only in the CZTSe Raman peaks but also in the secondary phases, which suggests that there is some subtle microscopic differences between the two types of samples. In addition, 2D Raman mapping revealed a larger spatial extension of the local heating effect caused by HP illumination in the sputtered film, which also indicates that two nominally similar films might have different thermal conductivities. High temperature (HT) measurement, which offers uniform heating as opposed to local heating with high power, further enhances the capability of the approach.

Potential applications in optoelectronics had generated a great interest on the study of graphene optical properties. Along with this, graphene has exceptional properties such as high mobility and optical transparency, flexibility, mechanical robustness, etc. Due to these properties, graphene could be used in different devices such as transparent conductors, organic light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, touch screens, saturable absorbers and ultrafast lasers. A transfer-matrix method is used in order to calculate graphene optical properties, such as transmission, and absorption in the infrared region. The quasi-periodic structure consists in intercalated graphene sheets between two consecutives dielectrics. The dielectric materials follow the Thue-Morse sequence (ThMo). The graphene sheets are described by the optical conductivity considering interband and intraband transitions. The structure of the spectra depends strongly on the number of sequence generation, width of the different dielectrics and dielectric permittivity. In our case, the infrared region corresponds to a chemical potential greater than kT. In the calculated spectra, the geometrical properties of the Thue-Morse sequence can be observed. We obtain absorption bands well defined.