Type-II lateral SnSe/GeTe heterostructures for solar photovoltaic applications with high efficiency

Recently, lateral heterostructures based on two-dimensional (2D) materials have provided new opportunities for the development of photovoltaic nanodevices. In this work, we propose a novel lateral SnSe/GeTe heterostructure (LHS) with high photovoltaic performance and systematically investigate the structural, electronic and optical properties of the lateral heterostructure by using first-principles calculations. Our results show that this type of heterostructure processes excellent stability due to the small lattice mismatch and formation energy and also covalent bonding at the interface, which is greatly beneficial for the epitaxial growth of heterostructures. These heterostructures are semiconductors with type-II band alignment and their electronic properties can be effectively tuned by the size and composition ratio of the heterostructures. More importantly, it is found that these heterostructures possess high absorption over a wide range of visible light and high power conversion efficiency (up to 22.3%). These extraordinary properties make the SnSe/GeTe lateral heterostructures ideal candidates for photovoltaic applications.