Potential of Colloidal Quantum Dot based Solar Cell for Near-Infrared Active Detection

Julien Ramade (1) , Junling Qu (1) , Audrey Chu (1) , Charlie Gréboval (1) , Clément Livache (1) , Nicolas Goubet (2) , Bertille Martinez (1) , Grégory Vincent (3) , Emmanuel Lhuillier (1)

1 INSP-E6 - Physico-chimie et dynamique des surfaces
2 MONARIS - De la Molécule aux Nanos-objets : Réactivité, Interactions et Spectroscopies
3 DOTA, ONERA, Université Paris Saclay (COmUE) [Palaiseau]

Nanocrystal-based solar cell technologies currently have two materials competing for the highest performances: PbS and perovskites. These latter benefit from a defect-tolerant electronic structure, while PbS benefits from a mature diode fabrication technique and from its near-infrared absorption. Here we choose to revisit the potential of these PbS photodiodes for near-infrared detection and more precisely for active imaging. This mode of detection combines an eye invisible source with a detector. Such detection mode is used for surveillance, industrial sorting, LIDAR, etc. Here we use a state-of-the-art photodiode geometry and we reveal its potential for near-IR active detection at 940 nm. The diode can achieve a high photoresponse of 0.5 A.W-1, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 66% and a detectivity above 1012 Jones at room temperature. The time response which is often neglected for solar cells is found to be 10 ns for rise time and 1 µs for decay time. We demonstrate that long-distance (over 150 m) and time-gated active imaging can be conducted using this device.

Mots clés: quantum dots; near infrared; solar cell; active imaging; PbS nanocrystals; near-infrared; photodetection; long-distance imaging; time-gated detection

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]

Julien Ramade, Junling Qu, Audrey Chu, Charlie Gréboval, Clément Livache, et al.. Potential of Colloidal Quantum Dot based Solar Cell for Near-Infrared Active Detection. ACS photonics, 2019, ⟨10.1021/acsphotonics.9b01542⟩. ⟨hal-02382848⟩