Browsing by Subject "ultraviolet"

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Open Access
Novel ultraviolet scintillators based on semiconductor quantum dot emitters for significantly enhanced photodetection and photovoltaics
(2007) Mutlugün, Evren
Silicon photonics opens opportunities to realize optoelectronic devices directly on large-scale integrated electronics, leveraging advanced Si fabrication and computation capabilities. However, silicon is constrained in different aspects for use in optoelectronics. Such one limitation is observed in Si based photodetectors, cameras, and solar cells that exhibit very poor responsivity in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral range. Si CMOS photodetectors and CCD cameras cannot be operated in UV, despite the strong demand for UV detection and imaging in security applications. Also, although 95% of the photovoltaics market is dominated by Si based solar cells, silicon is not capable of using UV radiation of the solar spectrum for solar energy conversion, as required especially in space applications. In this thesis for the first time, we demonstrate novel UV scintillators made of semiconductor quantum dot emitters hybridized on Si detectors and cameras to detect and image in UV with significantly improved responsivity and on Si solar cells to generate electrical energy from UV radiation with significantly improved solar conversion efficiency. We present the device conception, design, fabrication, experimental characterization, and theoretical analysis of these UV nanocrystal scintillators. Integrating highly luminescent CdSe/ZnS core-shell nanocrystals, we demonstrate hybrid photodetectors that exhibit two-orders-of-magnitude peak enhancement in their responsivity. We also develop photovoltaic nanocrystal scintillators to enhance open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, fill factor, and solar conversion efficiency in UV. Hybridizing CdSe/ZnS quantum dots on Si photovoltaic devices, we show that the solar conversion efficiency is doubled under white light illumination (Xe lamp). Such UV scintillator nanocrystals hold great promise to enable photodetection and imaging in UV and extend photovoltaic activity to UV.
Open Access
Photocatalytic nanocomposites for increased optical activity
(2008) Tek, Sümeyra
To combat environmental pollution, photocatalytic decomposition provides degradation of organic and inorganic contaminants near the surface of the photocatalyst nanoparticles by converting optical energy of the absorbed light into chemical energy for the redox reactions. However, photocatalytic activities of such semiconductor metal-oxide nanoparticles are limited with their bandgap energy that allows for optical absorption typically in the ultraviolet spectral range. Yet another limitation is that the photocatalytic activity of these semiconductor nanoparticles is substantially reduced when they are immobilized in solid thin films, resulting from their effectively decreased active surface area. But such immobilized nanoparticles are much more desired in industrial applications, e.g., for mass environmental decontamination and outdoors/indoors self-cleaning on large surfaces. To address these issues, in this thesis, we investigated and demonstrated the spectral behavior and time evolution of optical activity curves of immobilized TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles. We studied the nanoparticle size effect for the optical activity and demonstrated significant increase in the resulting photocatalysis with decreasing the size of such immobilized nanoparticles for the first time. We obtained optimal excitation conditions for TiO2 and ZnO nanocomposite films separately. We achieved maximum optical recovery levels of 93% for TiO2 nanoparticles and 55% for ZnO nanoparticles at the excitation wavelengths of 310 nm and 290 nm, respectively, after optical irradiation with an excitation density of 7.3 J/cm2 , where we observed no optical recovery for their respective negative control groups (with no nanoparticles). In these comparative spectral studies, we showed strong correlation between the differential optical recovery and the photocatalytic activity. For further substantial enhancement in the near ultraviolet and visible spectral ranges, we also proposed and demonstrated the use of a unique combination of TiO2-ZnO nanoparticles integrated together into the same resin. In this novel approach, we observed higher levels of photocatalytic activity under optical irradiation at and above 380 nm compared to the cases of only TiO2 or only ZnO nanocomposite films with the same total metal-oxide nanoparticle density. At 400 nm in the visible, we accomplished an optical recovery level of ~30% with the combination of TiO2-ZnO nanoparticles together while this level was only ~14% for the TiO2 nanoparticles alone and ~3% for the ZnO nanoparticles alone under identical conditions. Even at 440 nm, we obtained ~20% optical recovery using the TiO2-ZnO photocatalytic synergy, despite the optical activity of the single type of nanoparticles alone close to the zero base-line of their control group. These proof-of-concept experimental demonstrations indicate that such TiO2-ZnO combined nanocomposite films hold great promise for efficient environmental decontamination in daylight.