Design study of a micro illumination platform based on GaN microLED arrays.

The design study of a micro illumination tool based on GaN microLED arrays is presented. The high spatio-temporal resolution and the capability of generating fully customized optical patterns that characterize the proposed platform would enable the manipulation of biological systems, e.g., for optogenetics applications. Based on ray tracing simulations, the design aspects that mainly affect the device performance have been identified, and the related structural parameters have been optimized to improve the extraction efficiency and the spatial resolution of the resulting light patterns. Assuming that the device is a bottom emitter, and the light is extracted from the n-side, the presence of mesa-structures on the p-side of the GaN layer can affect both the efficiency and the resolution, being optimized for different values of the mesa-side inclination angle. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the extracted spots is mainly determined by the substrate thickness, and the relation between the FWHM and the array pitch represents a criterion to define the resolution. Namely, when F W H M

Photo Stabilization of p-i-n Perovskite Solar Cells with Bathocuproine: MXene.

Interface engineering is one of the promising strategies for the long-term stabilization of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), preventing chemical decomposition induced by external agents and promoting fast charge transfer. Recently, MXenes-2D structured transition metal carbides and nitrides with various functionalization (O, -F, -OH) have demonstrated high potential for mastering the work function in halide perovskite absorbers and have significantly improved the n-type charge collection in solar cells. This work demonstrates that MXenes allow for efficient stabilization of PSCs besides improving their performances. A mixed composite bathocuproine:MXene, that is, (BCP:MXene) interlayer, is introduced at the interface between an electron-transport layer (ETL) and a metal cathode in the p-i-n device structure. The investigation demonstrates that the use of BCP:MXene interlayer slightly increases the power conversation efficiency (PCE) for PSCs (from 16.5 for reference to 17.5%) but dramatically improves the out of Glove-Box stability. Under ISOS-L-2 light soaking stress at 63 ± 1.5 °C, the T80 (time needed to reduce efficiency down to 80% of the initial one) period increases from 460 to > 2300 hours (h).

Role of Phase Nanosegregation in the Photoluminescence Spectra of Halide Perovskites.

The study of MAPbI3 phase transitions based on temperature-dependent optical spectroscopy has recently gained a huge attention. Photoluminescence (PL) investigations of the tetragonal-orthorhombic transition suggest that tetragonal nanodomains are present below the transition temperature and signatures associated with tetragonal segregations are observed. We have studied the impact of phase nanosegregation across the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition of MAPbI3 on the system's properties employing a tight binding (TB) approach. The particle swarm optimization has been used to obtain a consistent set of TB parameters, where the target properties of the system have been derived by first-principles calculations. The theoretical results have been compared with the measured PL spectra for a temperature range going from 10 to 100 K. Our model effectively captures the carriers' localization phenomenon induced by the presence of residual tetragonal nanodomains and demonstrates that the assumption of phase nanosegregation can explain the low-energy features in the PL spectra of MAPbI3.

Stochastic transformation of points in polygons according to the Voronoi tessellation: microstructural description.

Starting from a stochastic two-dimensional process we studied the transformation of points in disks and squares following a protocol according to which at any step the island size increases proportionally to the corresponding Voronoi tessera. Two interaction mechanisms among islands have been dealt with: coalescence and impingement. We studied the evolution of the island density and of the island size distribution functions, in dependence on island collision mechanisms for both Poissonian and correlated spatial distributions of points. The island size distribution functions have been found to be invariant with the fraction of transformed phase for a given stochastic process. The n(Θ) curve describing the island decay has been found to be independent of the shape (apart from high correlation degrees) and interaction mechanism.