Sensate proposes ground breaking ideas and concepts combining very innovative low dimensional thin film materials and highly asymmetric selective contacts with dipoles, for the development of non-intrusive and universal solar energy harvester. The project will exploit for the first time the full optical and electrical potential of one-dimensional (1D) thin film wide bandgap materials, including chalcogenide, halide and mixed chalcogenide/halide compounds. The use of 1D semiconductors as PV absorbers will represent a breakthrough thanks to their unique capability to exhibit excellent electrical/optical properties in very thin layers when correctly oriented. A wide range of wide bandgap 1D semiconductors will be developed, including strategies for their 1D texturing using annealing at high-pressure and under magnetic fields.

This will be combined with disruptive selective asymmetric contacts based on electron and hole transport metal oxide layers, enhanced with superficial organic and inorganic dipoles, to develop a ubiquitous solar harvester with customized transparency/efficiency. If succeed, transparent, semi-transparent and coloured devices for advanced BIPV applications and electronics, as well as top cells for very high efficiency and low cost tandem devices will benefit from this technology, setting the basis required for a massive PV implementation and contributing to change our energy consumption model.

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