Enhanced photovoltaic and piezo-photovoltaic effects in flexible oxide ferroelectric film directly coated on polyimide substrate

Flexible ferroelectric photovoltaic (FePV) films have drawn widespread attention. However, in addition to the low filling factor (FF) and large bandgap of ferroelectrics, the direct fabrication of oxide FePV film on polymer substrate is also a challenging research topic. Here, we demonstrate high-performance FePV devices can be obtained with partially crystallized Zn0.92-xCux(Fe0.04Li0.04)O (ZCFLO) film directly coted on polyimide substrate utilizing a cheap and simple dip-coating method at low-temperature processing. By introducing the local ferroelectricity and the piezo-photovoltaic effect, enhanced carrier transportation is achieved in designed ferroelectric/amorphous nanostructures, and the photovoltaic performances of the ZCFLO devices are enhanced in broadened spectral range. Under the AM 1.5 G light and the tensile strain of 0.39%, the markedly improved FF (> 86%), large photoresponse (>15 mA/W), giant piezo-photovoltaic (PPV) tensor (similar to 1.94 mA center dot W-1 center dot GPa(-1)) and resulted high PCE (>2.9%) were obtained in flexible ZCFLO (x = 0.05) FePV devices. This work not only offers a cost-efficient pathway to design high-performance FePV devices but also further broadens the research scope of piezo-phototronics.

Automated summary

In this study, high-performance FePV devices were obtained by directly coating partially crystallized Zn0.92-xCux(Fe0.04Li0.04)O (ZCFLO) film on a polyimide substrate using a cheap and simple dip-coating method. Enhanced carrier transportation and photovoltaic performance were achieved by introducing local ferroelectricity and the piezo-photovoltaic effect in designed ferroelectric/amorphous nanostructures, further expanding the research scope of piezo-phototronics.