Download or read book Probing Nanostructures for Photovoltaics written by Anna Monro Zaniewski and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ability to make materials with nanoscale dimensions opens vast opportunities for creating custom materials with unique properties. The properties of materials on the nanoscale are distinct from their larger counterparts, and can be tuned in ways that are not otherwise possible. In this work, various nanoscale materials are synthesized and characterized, with an emphasis on materials with photovoltaics applications. Graphene, an atomically thin sheet of carbon, is combined with metal nanoparticles, and the electronic and optical properties of this material are studied. Heterostructured nanocrystals of \ce{CdS}-\ce{Cu2S} are characterized as a potential solar cell active layer. Improvement of the performance of organic solar cells is achieved with the application of large electric fields. In all of these studies, the atomic force microscope is used to characterize the surface topography and electronic properties of these systems.