APPROACH aims to support the training and mobility of research and innovation talents across sectors, developing best practices for intersectoral talent circulation at the benefit of the participating widening countries. It is aiming to develop a reinforcing innovation ecosystem, creating an impactful collaboration between academia and businesses.
APPROACH aims to the development of clean, sustainable energy conversion and storage technologies, particularly using photon-assisted micro-nano fabrication techniques, to overcome the fossil fuel crisis and environmental pollution concerns. Since efficient energy harvesting has become one of the main challenges of the present era, both academia and industry efforts focus on the development of feasible and low-cost fabrication methods for the production of advanced energy conversion materials and devices. In particular, on account of the increasing energy demand, the performance enhancement of next-generation photovoltaic (PV) devices relies on the adoption of precise, but simple and low-cost manufacturing solutions, compatible with large-scale and high-throughput production lines. Laser-based processes are scalable and thus well-established in industry, while enabling cost-efficient, precise, non-contact engineering of materials by means of photothermal, photochemical, or photophysical routes. In view of the above, APPROACH focuses on the application of advanced light-driven approaches for the fabrication and processing of materials and components of perovskite-based PV systems. Namely, the following photonic schemes are envisaged: (i) Pulsed laser rapid annealing of perovskite active layers. (ii) Pulsed laser photochemical processing of electrodes and interlayers for energy level tuning. (iii) Laser patterning, scribing, and texturing strategies for efficient photon-management. (iv) Advanced laser welding and joining schemes for efficient PV encapsulation. (v) Adoption of the solar spectrum to sensitivity of PV devices using light converting layers. And (iv) Implementation of ultrafast laser diagnostics for probing the charge extraction mechanisms within PV devices towards maximizing performance.
