A new chapter in the long and distinguished history of perovskites is being written with the breakthrough success of metal halide perovskites (MHPs) as solution-processed photovoltaic (PV) absorbers. The current surge in MHP research has largely arisen out of their rapid progress in PV devices; however, these materials are potentially suitable for a diverse array of optoelectronic applications. Like oxide perovskites, MHPs have ABX3 stoichiometry, where A and B are cations and X is a halide anion. Here, the underlying physical and photophysical properties of inorganic (A = inorganic) and hybrid organic–inorganic (A = organic) MHPs are reviewed with an eye toward their potential application in emerging optoelectronic technologies. Significant attention is given to the prototypical compound methylammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3) due to the preponderance of experimental and theoretical studies surrounding this material. We also discuss other salient MHP systems, including 2-dimensional compounds, where rele...

Intriguing Optoelectronic Properties of Metal Halide Perovskites

Heavily doped zinc oxide films are used as transparent and conductive electrodes, especially in thin film solar cells. Despite decades of research on zinc oxide it is not yet clear what the lower limit of the resistivity of such films is. Therefore, the electrical parameters of zinc oxide films deposited by magnetron sputtering, metal organic chemical vapour deposition and pulsed laser ablation are reviewed and related to the deposition parameters. It is found that the lowest resistivities are in the range of 1.4 to 2×10-4 Ω cm, independently of the deposition method. The highest reported Hall mobilities are about 60 cm2 V-1 s-1. The thin film electrical data are compared with the corresponding values of single crystalline zinc oxide and with that of boron and phosphorous doped crystalline silicon. From this comparison it can be seen that the dependence of the Hall mobilities on the carrier concentration n are quite similar for silicon and zinc oxide. In the region n>5×1020 cm-3, which is most important for the application of zinc oxide as a transparent and conductive electrode, phosphorous doped silicon has a mobility only slightly higher than zinc oxide. The experimental data on the electron and hole mobilities in silicon as a function of the impurity concentration have been described by a fit function (Masetti et al 1983), which can also be applied with different fitting parameters to the available zinc oxide mobility data. A comparison of the experimental data with the well known ionized impurity scattering theories of Conwell-Weisskopf (1946) and Brooks-Herring-Dingle (1955) shows that these theories are not able to describe the data very well, even if the non-parabolic band structure is taken into account. As in the case of silicon, an additional reduction of the mobility also occurs for zinc oxide for concentrations n>5×1020 cm-3, which can be ascribed qualitatively to the clustering of charge carriers connected with increased scattering due to the Z-2 dependence of the scattering cross section on the charge Z of the scattering centre. The presented review of the charge carrier transport in zinc oxide indicates that a physical limit due to ionized impurity scattering is reached for homogeneously doped layers. Due to the universal nature of this limitation it is suggested that it also applies to the other important materials indium-tin (ITO) and tin oxide. Experiments are proposed to overcome this limit.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/34/21/301/pdf

Resistivity of polycrystalline zinc oxide films: current status and physical limit

A semiempirical model for carrier mobility in silicon inversion layers is presented. The model, strongly oriented to CAD (computer-aided design) applications, is suitable for two-dimensional numerical simulations of nonplanar devices. A local mobility function, set up in terms of a simple Mattiessen's rule, provides a careful description of MOSFET operation in a wide range of normal (or gate) electric fields, channel impurity concentrations of between 5*10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/ and 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ for the acceptor density of states and 6*10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/ and 3*10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ for the donor density of states; and temperatures between 200 K and 460 K. Best-fit model parameters are extracted by comparing the calculated drain conductance with a very large set of experimental data points. >

A physically based mobility model for numerical simulation of nonplanar devices

Semiconductor Power Devices

Thermoelectric power sources have consistently demonstrated their extraordinary reliability and longevity for deep space missions and small unattended terrestrial systems. However, more efficient bulk materials and practical devices are required to improve existing technology and expand into large-scale waste heat recovery applications. Research has long focused on complex compounds that best combine the electrical properties of degenerate semiconductors with the low thermal conductivity of glassy materials. Recently it has been found that nanostructuring is an effective method to decouple electrical and thermal transport parameters. Dramatic reductions in the lattice thermal conductivity are achieved by nanostructuring bulk silicon with limited degradation in its electron mobility, leading to an unprecedented increase by a factor of 3.5 in its performance over that of the parent single-crystal material. This makes nanostructured bulk (nano-bulk) Si an effective high temperature thermoelectric material that performs at about 70% the level of state-of-the-art Si0.8Ge0.2 but without the need for expensive and rare Ge.

Nanostructured Bulk Silicon as an Effective Thermoelectric Material

New carrier mobility data for both arsenic- and boron-doped silicon are presented in the high doping range. The data definitely show that the electron mobility in As-doped silicon is significantly lower than in P-doped silicon for carrier concentrations higher than 1019cm-3. By integrating these data with those previously published, empirical relationships able to model the carrier mobility against carrier concentration in the whole experimental range examined to date (about eight decades in concentration) for As-, P-, and B-doped silicon are derived. Different parameters in the expression for the n-type dopants provide differentiation between the electron mobility in As-and in P-doped silicon. Finally, it is shown that these new expressions, once implemented in the SUPREM II process simulator, lead to reduced errors in the simulation of the sheet resistance values.

Modeling of carrier mobility against carrier concentration in arsenic-, phosphorus-, and boron-doped silicon

An integrated operational amplifier employing a new high-gain input stage and implemented with n.m.o.s. enhancement devices is reported. The circuit has been designed with reference to the output differential-charge amplifier of a c.c.d. transversal filter. The performance parameters of the amplifier are presented.

Integrated n.m.o.s. operational amplifier for c.c.d. transversal filters

An NMOS output amplifier stage employing a particular feedback network giving low values of the output impedance is reported. The best results (about 100Ω) have been obtained with a silicon gate enhancement/depletion technology. Limited values of power and area consumption are required.

Integrated NMOS output stage with low output impedance

A new scheme for an integrated NMOS dynamic differential stage is presented. The stage exhibits low power consumption, occupies a small die area, has a voltage gain dependent only on one capacitance ratio, and it can be used as a building block for sampled-data filters. The basic principle of operation of the stage is firstly presented, then the main characteristics and limitations are discussed and compared with experimental results.

M. Severi

Papers

Modeling of carrier mobility against carrier concentration in arsenic-, phosphorus-, and boron-doped silicon

Integrated n.m.o.s. operational amplifier for c.c.d. transversal filters

Integrated NMOS output stage with low output impedance

NMOS dynamic differential amplifier