title: Facile synthesis of phosphine free ultra-small PbSe nanocrystals and their light harvesting studies in ETA solar cells.
abstract: Ultra-small PbSe nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized via a 'one-pot' approach in olive oil as the reaction medium and capping agent. The optical spectra showed discernible blue shifts in the absorption band edges (570-780 nm) due to strong quantum confinement effects and photoluminescence (PL) spectra showed significant strong emission peaks in the range of 780-850 nm. The broad peaks in the powder X-ray diffraction (p-XRD) pattern indicate the ultra-small size of the as-prepared NCs. These NCs were used to construct an extremely thin absorber (ETA) solar device after surface modification. The preliminary results indicate their potential as light harvesting entities in nanostructure based solar cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Polymers & Materials Synthesis (PMS) Lab, COMSATS, Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Javeed
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Akhtar
authors.forename: Mateusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Banski
authors.forename: Mohammad Azad
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.forename: Neerish
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Revaprasadu
authors.forename: Artur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Podhorodecki
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Misiewicz