Contact materials and interface formation play a dominant role in the performance of several optoelectronic devices, such as a wide variety of solar cells, smart windows, light emitting diodes, but also photoelectrochemical cells for solar-driven fuel generation. These devices are also driving important innovations in materials and device architectures to enable desired functionalities. Indeed, for many of these applications, contacts increasingly need to fulfill multiple functions such as surface passivation, carrier collection/injection, lateral conductivity, and forming an effective contact to the outer device terminals, while being as broadband transparent as possible. Additional constraints may be present such as processing compatibility, overall device stability and reliability, cost, and reliance on abundant and non-toxic materials. Overall, material design aided by computational and machine learning methods, precision synthesis, the use of hybrid organic-inorganic materials, interfacial engineering and smart integration of contacts in these devices will open the way to new functionality and improved device efficiency. Together with contact material innovation, novel characterization methods to elucidate the role of the interfaces in device performance will be required to design of the next generation of optoelectronic devices.

The goal of this symposium is to continue the dialogue in a multidisciplinary community of organic and inorganic material and device scientists, physicists, chemists, material modeling and prediction researchers working on optoelectronic materials, interface characterization and devices, to discuss the current and future needs in contacting materials and interfaces, including those used in high-efficiency solar cells based on hybrid halide perovskites, silicon, organic, thin-film and III-V materials.

devices electrical properties electronic material inorganic optoelectronic organic perovskites photovoltaic transparent conductor