Optical properties of dielectric thin films including quantum dots.

Depending on the minimum size of their micro/nanostructure, thin films can exhibit very different behaviors and optical properties. From optical waveguides down to artificial anisotropy, through diffractive optics and photonic crystals, the application changes when decreasing the minimum feature size. Rigorous electromagnetic theory can be used to model most of the components, but, when the size is a few nanometers, quantum theory also has to be used. The materials, including quantum structures, are of particular interest for many applications, in particular for solar cells because of their luminescent and electronic properties. We show that the properties of electrons in periodic and nonperiodic multiple quantum well structures can be easily modeled with a formalism similar to that used for multilayer waveguides. The effects of different parameters, in particular the coupling between wells and well thickness dispersion, on possible discrete energy levels or the energy band of electrons and on electron wave functions are given. When such quantum confinement appears, the spectral absorption and extinction coefficient dispersion with wavelength are modified. The dispersion of the real part of the refractive index can be deduced from the Kramers-Kronig relations. Associated with homogenization theory, this approach gives a new model of the refractive index for thin films including quantum dots. The bandgap of ZnO quantum dots in solution obtained from the absorption spectrum is in good agreement with our calculation.

A "kite" shaped styryl end-capped benzo[2,1-b:3,4-b']dithiophene with high electrical performances in organic thin film transistors.

The bridging of distyryl-bithiophene leads to a kite shape of the conjugated system. This twist is not like twistacenes or twist deformation in alpha-oligothiophenes but a curvature such as in bowl shaped systems. Initially perceived to be undesirable, this new semiconductor in OTFT devices provides excellent performances in air, mu = 0.1 cm(2)/V.s, I(on)/I(off) > 10(6), S < 4 V/decade, higher by a factor of 5 to the parent unbridged coplanar analogue.

Reduction of Charge-Carrier Recombination at ZnO-Polymer Blend Interfaces in PTB7-Based Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells Using Regular Device Structure: Impact of ZnO Nanoparticle Size and Surfactant.

Cathode interfacial layers, also called electron extraction layers (EELs), based on zinc oxide (ZnO) have been studied in polymer-blend solar cells toward optimization of the opto-electric properties. Bulk heterojunction solar cells based on poly({4,8-bis[(2-ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl}{3-fluoro-2-[(2-ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4-b]thiophenediyl}) (PTB7) and [6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) were realized in regular structure with all-solution-processed interlayers. A pair of commercially available surfactants, ethanolamine (EA) and ethylene glycol (EG), were used to modify the surface of ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in alcohol-based dispersion. The influence of ZnO particle size was also studied by preparing dispersions of two NP diameters (6 versus 11 nm). Here, we show that performance improvement can be obtained in polymer solar cells via the use of solution-processed ZnO EELs based on surface-modified nanoparticles. By the optimizing of the ZnO dispersion, surfactant ratio, and the resulting morphology of EELs, PTB7/PC70BM solar cells with a power-conversion efficiency of 8.2% could be obtained using small sized EG-modified ZnO NPs that allow the clear enhancement of the performance of solution-processed photovoltaic devices compared to state-of-the-art ZnO-based cathode layers.