EPSRC-FNR Collaborative Proposal: Radiative Efficiency in Advanced Sulfide Chalcopyrites for Solar Cells (REACh)

The renewable and carbon-free energy system of the future will rely heavily on electricity generated by solar cells. Solar modules have significantly decreased in price in the last few years, however, the cost of the space they occupy remains a major factor. Therefore, improving the efficiency of solar cells is crucial because it means less space is needed to generate the same amount of electricity.

The project is focused on a new material called sulfide chalcopyrite, which can be used in thin films for solar cells. This material is stable, requires only small amounts of raw materials, and has shown potential for high efficiency. The project aims to study how the boundaries between different grains in these thin films affect their performance. It will study luminescence, which is the light that is emitted by a solar cell material when it is excited by a laser or an electron beam, thereby generating electrons. This light helps to determine the quality of the thin films because the electrons responsible for emitting light are also those that generate current in the solar cell. If these electrons are lost at grain boundaries, it reduces the cell’s efficiency. This information will help adapt the growth process of the thin films to make them into better solar cells, by avoiding the growth of the more damaging types of grain boundary.