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Postdoc - Optimization and Characterization of Light weight flexible CIGS based solar cells

Employer
Global Academy Jobs
Location
France
Closing date
Jul 31, 2018

Job Details

IPVF presentation
The “Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France” IPVF has for ambitious to become one of the main research, innovation and education center around solar energy. Composed with international well known industrials, leading in PV industry (EDF, Total, Air Liquide, Horiba Jobin Yvon et Riber) and academic research teams (CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique), IPVF want to increase performances and competitiveness of PV solar cells and develop new breakthrough technologies thanks to:
A research program Experimental laboratories open to PV actors 
Education program with a master, PhD students and full time program Presentation of the subject Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France (IPVF) announces a 18 month Post-doctoral Research Position available for a highly motivated candidate to work in the frame of one of its research projects “Light weight flexible solar cells for innovative applications”.
 
Thin film photovoltaic based on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorbers show a high potential as a cost-efficient source of renewable energy, with conversion efficiencies up to 22.3 % achieved on a laboratory scale on rigid substrate and 16.5 % for production size modules. Prospects are good to further increase this record efficiency towards 25%, i.e. closer to the single crystalline silicon technology. These record-efficiencies were obtained using “classical” soda-lime glass substrates. The use of an alternative flexible and light-weight substrate such as polyimide (PI) or metals would have substantial advantages for the production process (roll-to-roll production) and the integration into buildings (lower weight and adaptation to non-planar surfaces) and will open new fields of applications.


However different losses limit the performance of these solar cells: these can be split into optical and electronic losses. In CIGS devices, optical losses arise from reflection at the surface, parasitic absorption of photons in the TCO and the buffer layer (front layers), and incomplete light absorption in the CIGS film. Concerning the electrical losses in CIGS based solar cells, there is an ongoing discussion about their actual origin that are linked to defects recombination in the CIGS bulk (including grain boundaries) or at any device interfaces. A link to chemical compositions of each layer, such as the importance of alkaline specifies in the absorber, will be key.
 
The post-doctoral missions will be the optimization, characterization and modeling of these solar cells in direct collaboration with the process team. The goal being a better understanding of the origin of losses in flexible CIGS solar cells in order to be able to develop new deposition methods and treatments for reducing their influence. Then, he will make a study of process upscaling adapted to the flexible substrates.

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