Energetically Autonomous, Wearable, and Multifunctional Sensor.

Self-powered tactile sensing is the upcoming technological orientation for developing compact, robust, and energy-saving devices in human-machine interfacing and electronic skin. Here, we report an intriguing type of sensing device composed of a Pt crack-based sensor in series with a polymer solar cell as a building block for energetically autonomous, wearable, and tactile sensor. This coplanar device enables human activity and physiological monitoring under indoor light illumination (2 mW/cm2) with acceptable and readible output signals. Additionally, the device can also function as a photodetector and a thermometer owing to the rapid response of the solar cell made from polymers. Consequently, the proposed device is multifuntional, mechanically robust, flexible, stretchable, and eco-friendly, which makes it suitable for long-term medical healthcare and wearable technology as well as environmental indication. Our designed green energy powered device therefore opens up a new route of developing renewable energy based portable and wearable systems.

Electrical impact of MoSe2 on CIGS thin-film solar cells.

The CIGS solar cell is one of the most promising photovoltaic devices due to the achievement of the highest conversion efficiency (>20%) among all thin-film solar cells. The CIGS cell has a glass/Mo/CIGS/CdS/TCO configuration, and the CIGS-Mo interface is a Schottky barrier to holes. During the sulfurization-after-selenization (SAS) CIGS formation process with H2Se gas, the Mo surface transforms naturally into MoSe2 at the CIGS-Mo interface. In this work, the electrical impact of MoSe2 on CIGS solar cells was investigated. Different CIGS-Mo interfaces were prepared with two CIGS processes. One is SAS, and the other is the sequential-sputtering-selenization CIGS process with Se gas. Formation of MoSe2 is hardly observed in the latter process. Samples were characterized by XRD, the van der Pauw method, reflectance, and visual inspection. Besides, Schottky barrier heights of cells were extracted from J-V-T measurements. For the first time, it was experimentally shown that the existence of thin MoSe2 film can decrease the apparent Schottky barrier height of CIGS solar cells. In addition, 1-dimensional numerical simulation showed that a larger barrier height affects both the fill factor and open-circuit voltage. Therefore, the formation of MoSe2 during the CIGS process should minimize the negative effect of Schottky barrier on solar-cell performances, especially with large Schottky barrier.