All oxide thin film photovoltaics

Hosting laboratory: ICube, 23 rue du Loess BP 20 CR - 67037 Strasbourg Cedex 2 - France MaCEPV team: Materials for electronic and photovoltaic devices icube.unistra.fr icube-macepv.unistra.fr

All oxide thin film photovoltaics

Inorganic thin film photovoltaics (PV) are mainly based on CdTe, amorphous Si or CIGS [1]. Another possible way is the use of metal oxides, that are generally stable, non-toxic, abundant and can be synthesized by various methods. The ideal bandgap width of an active PV layer for the solar spectrum is around 1.3 eV. However conductive oxides with such a low bandgap width are scarce [2]. One of the most studied oxides as active PV layer is cuprous oxide Cu2O. Its bandgap width of 2 eV is not ideal for to the solar spectrum, and conversion efficiencies do not exceed 4 % [3]. Novel perovskite oxides that have promising properties for PV have been identified. The objective of this work is to confirm with experiments their potential for PV. The project will consist first in the elaboration and characterization of such novel perovskite oxide thin films. Then, all-oxide pn junctions based on this material will be obtained and characterized. Finally all-oxide solar cells will be obtained to assess their potential for PV.

Tools: thin film deposition (sputtering) ; structural, surface, optical and electrical characterizations (XRD, AFM, UV-visible spectroscopy, ellipsometry, Hall effect, IV curves under illumination …) ; device modeling.

[1] Fundamentals of Materials for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, Cambridge University Press (2012).

[2] I. E. Castelli et al., Energy & Environmental Science 5, 5814 (2012).

[3] Z. Zang et al., Optics Express 21, 11448 (2013).

PhD supervisor: A. Slaoui

PhD mentor: T. Fix

Contact: Please apply with your resume, a cover letter and a copy of your marks from your last Master to tfix@unistra.fr

Only top students from their Master will be likely to receive funding.