PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION ELEMENT, PHOTO SENSOR, POWER GENERATOR, AND PHOTOELECTRIC CONVERSION METHOD

• Main Authors: NAKAMURA YASUO, KAWASAKI MASASHI, EINAGA NAOTO, MORIMOTO TAKAHIRO, KANEKO YOSHIO, TOKURA YOSHINORI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 22.07.2019
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

To provide a technology capable of reducing scattering of carriers (electrons or holes) generated by light incident on a photoelectric conversion unit and efficiently extracting a current caused by movement of the carriers from the photoelectric conversion unit.SOLUTION: A photoelectric conversion element 10 includes a photoelectric conversion unit 1 made of a polar material and having no p-n junction, and a first and second electrodes 2 and 3 provided in the photoelectric conversion unit 1 and arranged at intervals. In the structure of the photoelectric conversion unit 1, the space inversion symmetry is broken. The first and second electrodes 2 and 3 are made of a metal material that does not substantially generate a potential barrier. The potential barrier prevents majority carriers for the photoelectric conversion unit 1 from moving from the electrodes 2 and 3 to the photoelectric conversion unit 1.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1 【課題】光電変換部への光入射により生じたキャリア（電子又は正孔）の散乱を少なくし、当該キャリアの移動による電流を効率よく光電変換部から取り出せる技術を提供する。【解決手段】光電変換素子１０は、極性材料からなりｐ−ｎ接合を有しない光電変換部１と、光電変換部１に設けられ間隔をおいて配置された第１及び第２の電極２，３とを備える。光電変換部１の構造は、空間反転対称性が破れている。第１及び第２の電極２，３は、ポテンシャル障壁を実質的に生じさせない金属材料からなる。ポテンシャル障壁は、光電変換部１にとっての多数キャリアが電極２，３から光電変換部１へ移動することを妨げるものである。【選択図】図１