Publications de Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall

Towards Quantitative Terahertz Characterisation of Zinc Phosphide Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Léa Buswell, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

The earth-abundant and non-toxic material Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) is a promising candidate for solar cell applications. However, growth of defect-free, high-quality thin films on substrates that can integrate with current technology (e.g. silicon) remains c ...

IEEE Computer Society2024

Investigating the Effect of Crystal Morphology on Optoelectronic Properties of Zinc Phosphide Thin Films via Optical-pump Terahertz Probe Spectroscopy

Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Léa Buswell, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Zinc phosphide ( Zn3P2) is a promising earth-abundant material for solar cell applications but calls for the further understanding of its optoelectronic properties. In this work, we perform contact-free and noninvasive optical-pump terahertz probe (OPTP) s ...

IEEE2023

Carrier generation and collection in Zn3P2/InP heterojunction solar cells

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Franz-Josef Haug, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Julien Hurni, Rajrupa Paul, Valerio Piazza, Mirjana Dimitrievska, Joel René Sapera

Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) has been lauded as a promising solar absorber material due to its functional properties and the abundance of zinc and phosphorous. In the last 4 decades, there has not been any significant improvement in the efficiencies of Zn3P2-bas ...

ELSEVIER2023

Zn/P ratio and microstructure defines carrier density and electrical transport mechanism in earth-abundant Zn3-xP2+y thin films

Mihai Adrian Ionescu, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Carlotta Gastaldi, Valerio Piazza, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Scalable and sustainable photovoltaic technologies require low-cost and earth-abundant semiconducting materials. Zinc phosphide is purported to be an absorber material with optimal photovoltaic properties. Herein we report the electrical properties of Zn3P ...

2023

Nanoscale Growth Initiation as a Pathway to Improve the Earth-Abundant Absorber Zinc Phosphide

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Growth approaches that limit the interface area between layers to nanoscale regions are emerging as a promising pathway to limit the interface defect formation due to mismatching lattice parameters or thermal expansion coefficient. Interfacial defect mitig ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

Showcasing the optical properties of monocrystalline zinc phosphide thin films as an earth-abundant photovoltaic absorber

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Léa Buswell, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Zinc phosphide, Zn3P2, is a semiconductor with a high absorption coefficient in the spectral range relevant for single junction photovoltaic applications. It is made of elements abundant in the Earth's crust, opening up a pathway for large deployment of so ...

2022

Stoichiometry modulates the optoelectronic functionality of Zinc Phosphide (Zn3-xP2+x)

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Maria Chiara Spadaro, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Santhanu Panikar Ramanandan, Rajrupa Paul, Diego Armando Sandoval Salaiza, Mirjana Dimitrievska, Mischa Samuel Flór

Predictive synthesis–structure–property relationships are at the core of materials design for novel applications. In this regard, correlations between the compositional stoichiometry variations and functional properties are essential for enhancing the perf ...

2022

van der Waals Epitaxy of Co10–xZn10–yMnx+y Thin Films: Chemical Composition Engineering and Magnetic Properties

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Dirk Grundler, Ping Che, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Andrea Mucchietto, Rajrupa Paul, Mohammad Hamdi

Topologically protected magnetic skyrmions have raised interest for future spintronics applications. One of the main challenges is the synthesis of room temperature skyrmion-hosting materials that are compatible with thin-film technology. We present an app ...

2021

Modeling the Shape Evolution of Selective Area Grown Zn3P2 Nanoislands

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Vladimir Dubrovskii

Selective area growth of zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) on InP provides a pathway to high-quality semiconductor nanostructures and textured thin films made of earth-abundant elements. In the precoalescence stage, Zn3P2 emerges in the form of nanoislands undergoing ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2021

The path towards 1 µm monocrystalline Zn3 P2 films on InP: substrate preparation, growth conditions and luminescence properties

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Reza Zamani, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Semiconductors made with earth abundant elements are promising as absorbers in future large-scale deployment of photovoltaic technology. This paper reports on the epitaxial synthesis of monocrystalline zinc phosphide (Zn_3 P_2) films with thicknesses up to ...

2021

Data files of "Ni80Fe20 nanotubes with optimized spintronic functionalities prepared by atomic layer deposition"

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Dirk Grundler, Maria Carmen Giordano, Sho Watanabe, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall

Raw data associated to the manuscript "Ni80Fe20 nanotubes with optimized spintronic functionalities prepared by atomic layer deposition". Journal: Nanoscale, 2021 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR02291A . For plotting and data evaluation Excell and Ori ...

Zenodo2021

The Advantage of Nanowire Configuration in Band Structure Determination

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Earth-abundant and environmentally friendly semiconductors offer a promising path toward low-cost mass production of solar cells. A critical aspect in exploring new semiconducting materials and demonstrating their enhanced functionality consists in disenta ...

2021

Towards defect-free thin films of the earth-abundant absorber zinc phosphide by nanopatterning

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Reza Zamani, Martin George Friedl, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Valerio Piazza

Large-scale deployment of thin-film photovoltaics will be facilitatedthrough earth-abundant components. Herein, selective area epitaxyand lateral overgrowth epitaxy are explored for the growth of zincphosphide (Zn3P2), a promising earth-abundant absorber. ...

2021

Rotated domains in selective area epitaxy grown Zn3P2: formation mechanism and functionality

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul

Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) is an ideal absorber candidate for solar cells thanks to its direct bandgap, earth-abundance, and optoelectronic characteristics, albeit it has been insufficiently investigated due to limitations in the fabrication of high-quality ma ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2021

Ni80Fe20 nanotubes with optimized spintronic functionalities prepared by atomic layer deposition

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Dirk Grundler, Maria Carmen Giordano, Sho Watanabe, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall

Permalloy Ni80Fe20 is one of the key magnetic materials in the field of magnonics. Its potential would be further unveiled if it could be deposited in three dimensional (3D) architectures of sizes down to the nanometer. Atomic Layer Deposition, ALD, is the ...

2021

Optical properties and carrier dynamics in Co-doped ZnO nanorods

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Nicolas Tappy, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Aswathi Kanjampurath Sivan

The controlled modification of the electronic properties of ZnO nanorods via transition metal doping is reported. A series of ZnO nanorods were synthesized by chemical bath growth with varying Co content from 0 to 20 atomic% in the growth solution. Optoele ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2021

Optical properties and carrier dynamics in Co-doped ZnO nanorods (vol 3, pg 214, 2021)

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Nicolas Tappy, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Aswathi Kanjampurath Sivan

2021

Raman spectroscopy and lattice dynamics calculations of tetragonally-structured single crystal zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) nanowires

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Mirjana Dimitrievska

Earth-abundant and low-cost semiconductors, such as zinc phosphide (Zn3P2), are promising candidates for the next generation photovoltaic applications. However, synthesis on commercially available substrates, which favors the formation of defects, and cont ...

2020

van der Waals Epitaxy of Earth-Abundant Zn3P2 on Graphene for Photovoltaics

Cyril Cayron, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Elias Zsolt Stutz, Jean-Baptiste Leran, Nicolas Philippe Laurent Humblot, Roland Logé, Mahdi Zamani, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall, Rajrupa Paul, Shreyas Sanjay Joglekar

Earth-abundant semiconducting materials are a potential solution for large-scale deployment of solar cells at a lower cost. Zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) is one such Earth-abundant material with optoelectronic properties suitable for photovoltaics. Herein, we rep ...

2020

Measuring the Optical Absorption of Single Nanowires

Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Wonjong Kim, Simon Robert Escobar Steinvall

In this work we present a method to quantitatively measure the optical absorption of single nanowires that can be applied over a wide range of temperatures and with a high enough sensitivity to enable the measurement of below-band-gap absorption (as well a ...

American Physical Society (APS)2020