Properties of Halide Perovskite Photodetectors with Little Rubidium Incorporation.

This study investigates the effects of Rb doping on the Rb-formamidinium-methylammonium-PbI3 based perovskite photodetectors. Rb was incorporated in the perovskite films with different contents, and the corresponding photo-response properties were studied. Doping of few Rb (~2.5%) was found to greatly increase the grain size and the absorbance of the perovskite. However, when the Rb content was greater than 2.5%, clustering of the Rb-rich phases emerged, the band gap decreased, and additional absorption band edge was found. The excess Rb-rich phases were the main cause that degraded the performance of the photodetectors. By space charge limit current analyses, the Rb was found to passivate the defects in the perovskite, lowering the leakage current and reducing the trap densities of carriers. This fact was used to explain the increase in the detectivity. To clarify the effect of Rb, the photovoltaic properties were measured. Similarly, h perovskite with 2.5% Rb doping increased the short-circuit current, revealing the decline of the internal defects. The 2.5% Rb doped photodetector showed the best performance with responsivity of 0.28 AW-1 and ~50% quantum efficiency. Detectivity as high as 4.6 × 1011 Jones was obtained, owing to the improved crystallinity and reduced defects.

Resistive Switching Property of Organic-Inorganic Tri-Cation Lead Iodide Perovskite Memory Device.

: In this study, a glass/indium tin oxide (ITO)/formamidinium-methylammonium-cesium (FA-MA-Cs) tri-cation lead iodide perovskite/poly(methyl methacrylate (PMMA)/Al memory device with a controlled composition of (FA0.75MA0.25)1-xCsxPbI3 (x = 0-0.1) is demonstrated to exhibit bipolar resistive switching behavior. The tri-cation organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite film was prepared by a one-step solution process in which the amount of Cs was varied to modify the property of FA0.75MA0.25PbI3. It was found that the microstructure and defect properties of films are highly dependent on the contents of FA, MA, and Cs in the perovskite. The results found that 5% CsI doping is the optimized condition for improving the quality of FA0.75MA0.25PbI3, forming a high quality tri-cation perovskite film with a smooth, uniform, stable and robust crystalline grain structure. The resistive switching on/off ratio of the (FA0.75MA0.25)0.95Cs0.05PbI3 device is greater than 103 owing to the improved thin-film quality. Moreover, for the 5% CsI doped FA0.75MA0.25PbI3 films, the endurance and the stability of retention are better than the non-doped film. The improved microstructure and memory properties are attributed to the balance stress of FA/MA/Cs with different ionic size. It suggests the potential to achieve a desired resistive memory property of tri-cationic perovskite by carefully adjusting the cation ratios.

Improving Two-Step Prepared CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite Solar Cells by Co-Doping Potassium Halide and Water in PbI2 Layer.

Incorporating additives into organic halide perovskite solar cells is the typical approach to improve power conversion efficiency. In this paper, a methyl-ammonium lead iodide (CH3NH3PbI3, MAPbI3) organic perovskite film was fabricated using a two-step sequential process on top of the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) hole-transporting layer. Experimentally, water and potassium halides (KCl, KBr, and KI) were incorporated into the PbI2 precursor solution. With only 2 vol% water, the cell efficiency was effectively improved. Without water, the addition of all of the three potassium halides unanimously degraded the performance of the solar cells, although the crystallinity was improved. Co-doping with KI and water showed a pronounced improvement in crystallinity and the elimination of carrier traps, yielding a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.9%, which was approximately 60% higher than the pristine reference cell. The effect of metal halide and water co-doping in the PbI2 layer on the performance of organic perovskite solar cells was studied. Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopies indicated that a PbI2-dimethylformamide-water related adduct was formed upon co-doping. Photoluminescence enhancement was observed due to the co-doping of KI and water, indicating the defect density was reduced. Finally, the co-doping process was recommended for developing high-performance organic halide perovskite solar cells.

Gold-decorated magnetic nanoparticles modified with hairpin-shaped DNA for fluorometric discrimination of single-base mismatch DNA.

The authors describe the use of gold-decorated magnetic nanoparticles (Au/MNPs) in discriminating DNA sequences with a single-base (guanine) mismatch. The Au/MNPs were characterized through dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction, superconducting quantum interference device, and UV/visible spectroscopy. They were then conjugated to a probe oligomer consisting of a hairpin-shaped DNA sequence carrying two signalling fluorophores: fluorescein at its 3' end and pyrene in the loop region. When interacting with the target DNA sequences, the hybridized probe-target duplex renders the pyrene signal (at excitation/emission wavelengths of 345/375 nm) either quenched or unquenched. Quenching (or nonquenching) of the pyrene fluorescence depends on the presence of a guanine (or a nonguanine) nucleotide at the designated polymorphic site. The linear range of hybridization in these Au/MNPs is from 0.1 nM to 1.0 µM of ssDNA. Conceivably, this system may serve as a single-nucleotide polymorphism probe. Graphical Abstract Schematic presentation of probe-conjugated Au/MNP preparation (upper panel) and working principle to discriminate DNA with or without single-base (guanine) mismatch sequences at the polymorphic sites (lower panel). Py denotes pyrene-hooked pyrrolocytidine; F denotes fluorescein.

The influences of rapid-thermal annealing on the characteristics of Sr0.6Ba0.4Nb2O6 thin film.

The Sr0.6Ba0.4Nb2O6 (SBN) thin films were successfully prepared on Pt/Ti/Si and SiO2/Si/Al substrates and crystallized subsequently using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process in ambient atmosphere for 1 min. The surface morphologies and thicknesses of as-deposited and annealed SBN thin films were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, and the thickness was about 246 nm. As compared with the as-deposited SBN thin films, the RTA-treated process had improved the crystalline structures and also had large influence on the crystalline orientation. When the annealing temperatures increased from 700 degrees C to 900 degrees C, the diffraction intensities of (410) and (001) peaks apparently increased. Annealed at 900 degrees C, the (001) peak had the maximum texture coefficient and SBN thin films showed a highly c-axis (001) orientation. The influences of different RTA-treated temperatures on the polarization-applied electric field (P-E) curves and the capacitance-voltage (C-V) curves were also investigated.