View Alex's photojournal at http://www.pvinnovation.ca/files/A_Trip_to_McGill_University.pdf
Alex is a PhD student at the University of Ottawa, working on Project 11 - Novel III-V and I-III-VI Based Multi-Junction Solar Cells - under Dr. Karin Hinzer. He visited McGill University from August 22 to 24, 2011 to learn more about the growth and fabrication of CIGS solar cells.
DETAILS OF THE EXCHANGE
Objectives
1. Learn more about the growth and fabrication of CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) solar cells using their molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) reactor. Also to learn about the InAs quantum dot growth on III-V, Si and CIGS the McGill group is planning on growing in year 2.
2. Learn about the measurement techniques developed for characterizing the material quality of CIGS.
3. Also learn about the measurement techniques to characterize the performance of the solar cells grown at McGill (such as quantum efficiency and light and dark J-V characteristics).
4. Finally, get an overview of their modeling and simulation capabilities using the Crosslight software.
Planned Activities
1. Detailed overview and discussion on the growth of CIGS based solar cells using the MBE, as well as the fabrication. This activity includes a tour of the lab and a tutorial on how the MBE reactor operates. I am interested specifically in learning how the various growth parameters affect the crystal quality and important material parameters for solar cells (such as defect levels, carrier mobility, etc). I am also interested in learning the types of structures and materials used for CIGS based solar cells, such as passivation layers, metallic contacts, anti-reflection materials, etc. The group leader for the growth of CIGS is Professor Shih.
2. I am very interested in learning about crystal characterization methods that are capable of gauging the crystal quality of the structures grown using the MBE reactor (such as X-ray diffraction, transmission or scanning electron microscopy -- TEM and SEM respectively, Hall measurements, etc). More specifically, I am interested in learning about the grown structures that will be sent to the University of Ottawa for characterization and modeling. Structural parameters (such as layer thicknesses and doping levels) as well as material parameters that are dependent on the growth conditions can be extracted (or at least estimated) from these types of measurements.
3. Other measurements setups that are of interest to me and the collaboration between the University of Ottawa and McGill University are measurements of light and dark J-V characteristics and the external quantum efficiency. Different anti-reflection coatings are important in my studies and I'm interested in learning about the approach taken by the research group at McGill.
4. One day would ideally be dedicated to a tutorial on the device simulation tool Crosslight, which is a comparable tool to the one used at the SUNLab at the University of Ottawa for modeling multi-junction solar cells. This activity would be extremely interesting to me as I have dedicated most of my studies to modeling and simulating semiconductor heterostructures. I would be very interested in learning how this software is capable of modeling nanostructures within solar cells, such as nanowire solar cells or quantum dots.
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