2
Invited talk
Combinatorial synthesis as a bridge from materials modelling to device fabrication
Andriy Zakutayev, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, USA
This talk will discuss how high-throughput experimental materials science methods can be used to bridge the gap between the outputs of first-principles materials simulations and the inputs of multi-layer device fabrication. To accelerate the rate in technology innovation, the results of the high-throughput computational materials search (10s of material candidates) have to be further down-selected before the traditional applied technology/device optimization can start (1 device configuration). I will illustrate how this can be done using combinatorial experiments on the example Cu-M-Q (M = Sn, Sb, Q = S, Se) photovoltaic absorber materials suggested by theoretical calcuations for thin film solar cells. This research results in new chalcostibite (CuSbSe2) thin film solar cells with ~5% energy conversion efficiency, which is suitable for traditional device optimization towards eventual commercial fabrication.
This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy.