AIP Advances (Dec 2012)

Tunable photovoltaic effect and solar cell performance of self-doped perovskite SrTiO3

  • K. X. Jin,
  • Y. F. Li,
  • Z. L. Wang,
  • H. Y. Peng,
  • W. N. Lin,
  • A. K. K. Kyaw,
  • Y. L. Jin,
  • K. J. Jin,
  • X. W. Sun,
  • C. Soci,
  • Tom Wu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4766279
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 4
pp. 042131 – 042131-9

Abstract

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We report on the tunable photovoltaic effect of self-doped single-crystal SrTiO3 (STO), a prototypical perovskite-structured complex oxide, and evaluate its performance in Schottky junction solar cells. The photovaltaic characteristics of vacuum-reduced STO single crystals are dictated by a thin surface layer with electrons donated by oxygen vacancies. Under UV illumination, a photovoltage of 1.1 V is observed in the as-received STO single crystal, while the sample reduced at 750 °C presents the highest incident photon to carrier conversion efficiency. Furthermore, in the STO/Pt Schottky junction, a power conversion efficiency of 0.88% was achieved under standard AM 1.5 illumination at room temperature. This work establishes STO as a high-mobility photovoltaic semiconductor with potential of integration in self-powered oxide electronics.