title: Oxide heterostructures for efficient solar cells.
abstract: We propose an unexplored class of absorbing materials for high-efficiency solar cells: heterostructures of transition-metal oxides. In particular, LaVO(3) grown on SrTiO(3) has a direct band gap ∼1.1  eV in the optimal range as well as an internal potential gradient, which can greatly help to separate the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Furthermore, oxide heterostructures afford the flexibility to combine LaVO(3) with other materials such as LaFeO(3) in order to achieve even higher efficiencies with band-gap graded solar cells. We use density-functional theory to demonstrate these features.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Assmann
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blaha
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laskowski
authors.affiliation: Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Held
authors.affiliation: Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.affiliation: Institute of Solid State Physics, Vienna University of Technology, 1040 Vienna, Austria and Institut für Theoretische Physik und Astrophysik, Universität Würzburg, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sangiovanni