FORENT seminar:

Stable p-n heterojunctions: electro-optical properties of selected oxide systems

My name is Roystan James, currently working on my master’s thesis at the University of

Oslo. My background is from Bergen, where I received a bachelor’s degree in Nanotechnology. I am
currently at the electrochemistry group at the University of Oslo, under Truls Norby, with co-
supervisors Tor S. Bjørheim and Lasse Vines.

P-n heterojunctions is the topic of my project. A heterojunction is in brief the interface

occurring between two crystalline semiconductors that are dissimilar. Such junctions may be used to
create solar cells, transistors, and hopefully in my case a light emitting diode. The title encompasses
many systems and problems, which in a way reflects the nature of the project since it may take
unknown routes depending on the obtained results. Selected oxide systems, corresponding to p- and
n-type materials will be the compounds in focus. The goal is to create a system which can form a
stable heterojunction. Essentially, can these compounds be stable thermodynamically side by side
without interdiffusion and mixing. If that occurs, we would like the compounds to reorganise
themselves until a sharp junction is made.

As a starting point La2CuO4 and Nd2CuO4 will be the first candidates to be synthesised and
examined. LCO is reported to be a p-type material, while NCO is n-type, and have been studied
extensively due to superconductivity as high as 40 K for doped LCO. As of now, LCO is being
synthesised and will be checked by XRD. Successful products are to be used to check the
conductivity and Seebeck.

A long-term goal is to create a system that might be able to emit light. Light emitting diodes are
found everywhere in today’s technology. They are highly efficient, and environmentally more
friendly than other systems. Combining heterojunctions in some way to have the system emit light
could be used in several applications, one of them being catalysis.