Simulation of double-junction III-phosphides/silicon solar cells

The characteristics of two-junction solar cells were calculated in this work, in which phosphides of group III are used as the top junction, and Si as the bottom junction. The following ternary phosphide compounds Ga0.52In0.48P (1.85 eV), GaPN0.02 (1.9 eV), and GaPN0.04 (1.7 eV) were considered as the active material of the top junction. The use of GaPN0.04 allowed one to reach the current matching with the bottom Si junction and an efficiency of 30% was achieved. In addition, the influence of the layer thickness, the lifetime of minority charge carriers and the electronic affinity on the efficiency of solar energy conversion were considered.

GaInP/GaAs three-terminal heterojunction bipolar transistor solar cell

We demonstrate a heterojunction bipolar transistor solar cell (HBTSC), a device that exhibits the performance of a double-junction solar cell in a more compact npn (or pnp) semiconductor structure. The HBTSC concept has the advantages of being a three-terminal device, such as low spectral sensitivity and high tolerance to non-optimal band-gap energies, while it has a lower fabrication and operation complexity than other multi-terminal architectures: it can produce independent power extraction from the two junctions without the need for extra isolating or interconnecting layers between them. The two junctions in our proof-of-concept HBTSC prototype, which is made of epitaxial GaInP/GaAs, exhibit independent current-voltage characteristics under AM1.5G illumination, with respective open-circuit voltages of 1.33 and 0.95 V. The HBTSC opens a new perspective in the understanding of multi-junction devices, and it is an excellent candidate for the application of low-cost fabrication techniques, and for the implementation of III-V-on-silicon tandems.

Photovoltaic Partner Selection for High-efficiency Photovoltaic-electrolytic Water Splitting Systems: Brief Review and Perspective

Photovoltaic-electrolysis water splitting (PV-EWS) is the most promising approach for high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency. The present PV-EWS systems achieve the highest STH performance by using a III−V triple-junction configuration, which, however, involves a complex and expensive manufacture process. Therefore, in this work, we demonstrate a III−V double junction device that can be used as an alternative to the III−V triple-junction device for high STH conversion efficiency of the PV-EWS systems. We estimate the STH performance via coupling world-recorded multi-junction photovoltaic (PV) and our experimented cell configurations with an EWS system. The results show that the III−V double junction, owing to the good trade-off between the efficiency loss and compensation, exhibits a higher STH efficiency than the III−V triple-junction. Furthermore, strategies for improving the efficiency of the III−V double junction device for low-cost PV-EWS system are discussed.

Titanium Nitride Thin Film Based Low-Redox-Interference Potentiometric pH Sensing Electrodes

In this work, a solid-state potentiometric pH sensor is designed by incorporating a thin film of Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtered (RFMS) Titanium Nitride (TiN) working electrode and a commercial Ag|AgCl|KCl double junction reference electrode. The sensor shows a linear pH slope of −59.1 mV/pH, R2 = 0.9997, a hysteresis as low as 1.2 mV, and drift below 3.9 mV/h. In addition, the redox interference performance of TiN electrodes is compared with that of Iridium Oxide (IrO2) counterparts. Experimental results show −32 mV potential shift (E0 value) in 1 mM ascorbic acid (reducing agent) for TiN electrodes, and this is significantly lower than the −114 mV potential shift of IrO2 electrodes with sub-Nernstian sensitivity. These results are most encouraging and pave the way towards the development of miniaturized, cost-effective, and robust pH sensors for difficult matrices, such as wine and fresh orange juice.

Transcriptional and epi-transcriptional dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 during cellular infection

SummarySARS-CoV-2 uses subgenomic (sg)RNA to produce viral proteins for replication and immune evasion. We applied long-read RNA and cDNA sequencing to in vitro human and primate infection models to study transcriptional dynamics. Transcription-regulating sequence (TRS)-dependent sgRNA was upregulated earlier in infection than TRS-independent sgRNA. An abundant class of TRS-independent sgRNA consisting of a portion of ORF1ab containing nsp1 joined to ORF10 and 3’UTR was upregulated at 48 hours post infection in human cell lines. We identified double-junction sgRNA containing both TRS-dependent and independent junctions. We found multiple sites at which the SARS-CoV-2 genome is consistently more modified than sgRNA, and that sgRNA modifications are stable across transcript clusters, host cells and time since infection. Our work highlights the dynamic nature of the SARS-CoV-2 transcriptome during its replication cycle. Our results are available via an interactive web-app at http://coinlab.mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/.

Symmetry Conservation of Dirac Fermion With Double Junction and Gauge Field of Weyl Fermion With Single Junction

Majorana fermion and Weyl fermion have matters and antimatters. But Majorana fermion has zero resistance and Weyl fermion has a resistance. It was confirmed that CP symmetry is preserved in the case of Dirac fermion because it only has spin current as the antimatter. Dirac fermion is supercurrent because CP symmetry is preserved by double schottky contact, but the Majorana fermion with ohmic contact has decreased current due to symmetry violation. Parity symmetry conservation was confirmed from the electrical properties of transistors, and charge symmetry conservation was confirmed in diode properties.