From bulk crystals to nanowires: investigating CH3NH3PbI3 photovoltaic

by Prof. Lazlo Forro (Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne CH-1015 Lausannes)

Monday 23 May 2016, 15:00 → 17:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Rasetti (Dipartimento di Fisica - Ed. G. Marconi)

Recently, it has been shown by the Snaith and Graetzel groups that CH3NH3PbI3 is very promising material in photovoltaic devices reaching light conversion efficiency (η) up to 21%. A strong research activity has been focused on the chemistry of the material to establish the most important parameters which could further improve η and to collect photons from a broad energy window. The major trend in this field is in photovoltaic device engineering although the fundamental aspects of the material are not yet understood. In my lab we have devoted considerable effort to the growth of high quality single crystals at different length scales, ranging from large bulk crystals (up to 100 mm3) through nanowires down to quantum dots of tens of nanometers of linear dimensions. The structural tunability of the material allows to study a broad range of physical phenomena including electrical and thermal transport, magnetism and optical properties which will be reported in this presentation together with some device applications.