Australia researchers separate semi-conductor materials for producing solar energy equipment

The National University of Australia announced that researchers at the university have used adhesive tape to separate single-atom layered phosphines, creating possibilities for the production of ultra-thin, ultra-light solar cells and light-emitting diodes. The subject’s principal investigator, Dr. Lu Junru from the National University of Australia’s School of Engineering and Computer Science, said that his research team used tape separation to continuously strip thinner and thinner crystal layers from the black crystals of phosphorus. Phosphorus is a semiconductor like silicon, and thin phosphenes perform better than silicon.

“Using phosphenes that are much thinner and lighter than silicon as semiconductors, we can create a lot of interesting devices, such as light-emitting diodes and solar cells,” said Lu Xiaorui.

Lu Jirui said that phosphenes show very strong luminescence properties, and the luminescence of phosphenes of different thicknesses varies greatly, which also provides flexibility in equipment manufacturing. By changing the number of phosphene layers, one can precisely control its optical band gap, and the optical band gap determines the properties of the material.

The research results were published in the journal Nature: Science and Applications.