CORDIS

Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources of the 21st century. For solar cells, the most important aspects for commercialization are power conversion efficiency and cost which can be combined into a €/W metric. Today, over 90% of the global solar industry is comprised of single-junction crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells, however, c-Si solar cells have some limitations. The first is their non-mechanically flexible nature and second, their single-junction limit of efficiency which can be surpassed by multijunction technology. Lead-halide perovskites are generating substantial scientific and industrial interest because they are low-cost, highly efficient and bandgap tunable, key criteria for multijunction solar cells. Furthermore, perovskites can be deposited via thermal co-evaporation meaning that the devices in this project, can be made from start-to-finish entirely from industrially attractive vacuum deposition techniques. Unlike conventional c-Si, perovskites are a thin-film technology, which means they can be made into lightweight and flexible solar cells with a high power-to-weight ratio. Thus, they have additional applications for (1) portable electronic devices including smartphones and displays, (2) vehicles, drones and aircraft, (3) wearable textiles, and more. The project draws from two distinct areas of photovoltaics research, specifically lightweight and flexibility with high-efficiency achieved by multijunction technology, allowing it to compete competitively with crystalline silicon in conventional solar energy generation and niche applications. The experienced researcher will be joining StranksLab to build a strong fundamental photophysical understanding of thermally co-evaporated perovskite layers via state-of-the-art spectroscopy tools to target the development of a lightweight and flexible all-perovskite triple-junction solar cell with an efficiency >30%.