The Department of Physics and Astronomy proudly presents a colloquium featuring Dr. Mike Scarpulla, Materials Science & Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Utah. Dr. Scarpulla will present his talk, “Laser Processing of CdTe for Increased Efficiency and Decreased Costs of Thin Film Photovoltaics”, Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 4:10 p.m. in Webster B17.
Meet for refreshments before the lecture at 3:45 – 4:10 p.m. in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall.
Abstract: In the past decade, CdTe has become the leading thin film photovoltaic material, becoming the first PV technology to break the $1/Watt manufacturing cost barrier (now estimated at $0.54/Watt), breaking efficiency records for thin film photovoltaics on its way to 21.5%, and recently reaching 10 GW total installed capacity. However current best estimates for PV electricity reaching widespread, unsubsidized grid parity still demand a further halving of the cost per Watt. My group has been working to apply high powered lasers in thin film CdTe manufacturing in annealing and surface treatment applications. In this talk I will review our progress in recrystallizing and CdCl2 treating CdTe thin films, in developing in-situ monitoring during CdCl2 treatments, and in modifying the back contact. I will also discuss some fascinating avenues for future work in which light absorption has non-trivial (i.e. non-thermal) effects in semiconductors that can find application in CdTe processing.
