Giant magnetic pumping of photovoltage and photocurrent using dielectric lossy material

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates giant magnetic field-induced tunability of photovoltage and photocurrent in dielectric materials Li2ZnSiO4 and Li2SiO3, revealing a new magnetic approach for enhancing photoelectric effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel magnetic method to significantly enhance photovoltage and photocurrent in dielectric materials, supported by a model explaining the magnetic interaction effects.

Findings

Up to 3850% photovoltage tunability in Li2ZnSiO4

Magnetic field induces over 132% tunability in Li2SiO3

A model explains spin interaction and charge gradient effects

Abstract

The enhancement of photovoltage and photocurrent of material is fundamentally significant owing to the many interesting phenomena found and the potential applications. However, vast altering of magnitude-orders of photoelectricity has been technologically challenging. Here we report two dielectric materials Li2ZnSiO4 and Li2SiO3 showing high photovoltage and photocurrent tunability. When magnetic field increasing from 0.00015T up to 0.44T,it is found that 3850% of photovoltage tunability and 3841 % of photocurrent tunability in Li2ZnSiO4 , and 132.8% of photovoltage tunability and 132.5% of photocurrent tunability in Li2SiO3. A simple model that considers the effects of spin mixing/interaction and magnetically-tunable charge gradient is used to explain this interaction between magnetic field and the photoelectricity. This result indicates a magnetic approach can be potentially used for energy efficiency.