from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
While all traditional photovoltaic materials are covalent compounds with coordination number 4, currently the most progressive materials - hybrid halide perovskites - have coordination number 6 and are ionic. This can be the key to success, especially regarding surface electronic properties, which are essential for polycrystalline semiconductors. This motivates us to explore completely new materials - cubic lithium thiospinels - and compare them with the former. Li thiospinels are prepared from stoichiometrically mixed precursors as a pellet in a nitrogen-filled glovebox. This tablet serves as a target in Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and a special chamber is constructed that avoids air exposure of the precursor tablet during the loading. Thin films of lithium thiospinels are deposited on glass substrates and they are characterized by X-ray diffraction and optically by Photothermal Deflection Spectroscopy for accurate determination of absorption edge. Results are promising and demonstrate the validity of this approach.
Keywords: Thiospinels, methodology, hybrid halide perovskites, novel material, pulsed laser deposition© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.