Layering Astonishingly Light Materials to Make Electricity from Light

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have combined two semiconductor materials, each only three atomic layers thick. Adding one semiconducting layer of the photoactive crystal tungsten diselenide to a layer of molybdenum disulphide, and “creating a designer-material that may be used in future low-cost solar cells.” Having worked with graphene, that two-dimensional, atom-thick material that promises much for structures, batteries and solar cells, Thomas Mueuller, assistant professor of photonics, and his team “acquired the necessary know-how to handle, analyze and improve ultra-thin layers by working with graphene.”  The team applied their lessons learned with graphene to combining two ultra-thin semiconductor layers and are now studying their optoelectronic properties. Mueller explains, ““Quite often, two-dimensional crystals have electronic properties that are completely different from those of thicker layers of the same material.”  In their present study, the Tungsten diselenide, a semiconductor consisting of three atomic layers; one layer of tungsten sandwiched between two layers of selenium atoms. Mueller adds, “We had …