Ferroelectric perovskites Oxynitrides: a Roadmap towards advanced visible LIGHT harvesters – FORLIGHT

The ambitious goal of FORLIGHT consists in growing epitaxial ferroelectric oxynitride films, within the perovskite crystalline structure family, with tuneable band gaps / band structure and ferroelectric textures through a well thought doping strategy, adapted for enhanced visible light absorption which is a crucial parameter for disruptive solar light harvesting technologies. The proposer’s team possesses the necessary equipment and know-how to elaborate and characterize the meaningful physical properties (photo-activity, ferroelectricity) of such thin films.

The films will be realized by atomic plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy and pulsed laser deposition. The unique combination of available skills/techniques will allow to test the samples systematically for photoelectrochemical water splitting performance and chemical stability, photovolataic photocurrent, optical window, ferroelectric domain texture and light sensitivity to domain walls as well as macroscopic ferroelectric responses with respect to the band gap.