In this work, we describe the formation of a reduced bandgap CeNiO3 phase, which, to our knowledge, has not been previously reported, and we show how it is utilized as an absorber layer in a photovoltaic cell. The CeNiO3 phase is prepared by a combinatorial materials science approach, where a library containing a continuous compositional spread of Ce xNi1- xO y is formed by pulsed laser deposition (PLD); a method that has not been used in the past to form Ce-Ni-O materials. The library displays a reduced bandgap throughout, calculated to be 1.48-1.77 eV, compared to the starting materials, CeO2 and NiO, which each have a bandgap of ∼3.3 eV. The materials library is further analyzed by X-ray diffraction to determine a new crystalline phase. By searching and comparing to the Materials Project database, the reduced bandgap CeNiO3 phase is realized. The CeNiO3 reduced bandgap phase is implemented as the absorber layer in a solar cell and photovoltages up to 550 mV are achieved. The solar cells are also measured by surface photovoltage spectroscopy, which shows that the source of the photovoltaic activity is the reduced bandgap CeNiO3 phase, making it a viable material for solar energy.

中文翻译：

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透明氧化物如何获得某种颜色：发现CeNiO3降低了带隙相作为光伏吸收剂。

在这项工作中，我们描述了形成的带隙减少的CeNiO3相的形成，据我们所知，以前没有报道过，并且我们展示了如何将其用作光伏电池的吸收层。CeNiO3相是通过组合材料科学方法制备的，其中通过脉冲激光沉积（PLD）形成包含CexNi1-xO y连续成分扩展的库。过去从未用于形成Ce-Ni-O材料的方法。与起始材料CeO2和NiO的带隙均为〜3.3 eV相比，该库显示的整个带隙均减小，经计算为1.48-1.77 eV。通过X射线衍射进一步分析材料库，以确定新的结晶相。通过搜索并与“材料计划”数据库进行比较，可以实现带隙减少的CeNiO3相。CeNiO3降低的带隙相被用作太阳能电池中的吸收层，并实现了高达550 mV的光电压。太阳能电池还通过表面光电压光谱法进行了测量，这表明光伏活动的来源是还原的带隙CeNiO3相，使其成为太阳能的可行材料。