Paper on the importance of accurate determination of optical constants published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

Phoebe's paper explores the sensistivity of nanophotonic light trapping designs to the optical constants assumed for the metal. With the exception of aluminimum, there is strong divergence in the results. The work highlighting the need to determine the optical constants of the actual materials that will be deposited, ahead of designing a photonic light trapping structure. Full paper available from [ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.11.008 ]

Ned presents at the Centre of Excellence for Exciton Science in Melbourne

Ned gave a seminar “Photovoltaics : Opportunities and Limits“ at the first a series of Exciton Science seminars at the University of Melbourne. For more info, see the ARC Centre of Excellence for Exciton Science

Asia Clean Energy Summit, Singapore

Ned gave a plenary talk on “Novel PV Concepts – The Promise and Present Status” at the PV Asia Scientific Conference that formed part of the Asia Clean Energy Summit in Singapore; a broad meeting of finance, policy and technical experts.

PlusAlliance workshop on 'Nanoscale optical structures for high efficiency photovoltaic solar power conversion'

The PlusAlliance collaboration between UNSW, ASU and Kings College London held a workshop on the topic Nanoscale optical structures for high efficiency photovoltaic solar power conversion. The workshop was led by Professor Stephen Goodnick (ASU), Professor Ned Ekins-Daukes (UNSW) and Professor Anatoly Zayats (KCL) with the aim to fuse practical techniques and computational methods that have been developed independently at ASU, KCL & UNSW to establish the next generation of highly efficient solar cells. The researchers from Arizona State University (ASU), King’s College London, UNSW Sydney, Sharp Laboratories Europe and their colleagues from around the world discussed emerging approaches to better solar cells. The workshop was hosted at the Kavli Royal Society International Centreat Chicheley Hall, U.K. from 1st to 3rdof October 2018. 

Ned's paper on the ‘Use & Abuse of Woc’ presented at the 35th EUPVSC in Brussels

The open-circuit voltage offset is defined as Woc=Eg-Voc and provides a useful figure of merit for comparing the quality of different photovoltaic solar cells. However, the metric can be used inappropriately when considering nanostructured materials. In his presentation at the 35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, Ned described how to avoid these pitfalls and correctly handle this useful figure of merit.

SolCore coding Bootcamp held at Imperial College London

The first coding bootcamp for our SolCore simulation code was held over two days at Imperial College London, 20-21st September 2018. Delegates attended from Australia, Ireland, France, Italy and Spain, pooling their expertise over the two days, working on band-structure calculation, semiconductor optics and multi-junction solar cell simulation. Many of the results from the bootcamp will be integrated into the next public release of SolCore.

Phoebe wins Best Poster award at WCPEC-7 !

Congratulations to Phoebe Pearce for wining the best poster award for her work “Quantifying Parasitic Losses from Metal Scattering Structures in Solar Cells: How Uncertainty in Optical Constants Affects Simulation Results”. The award was presented at the closing ceremony of the 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion held in Hawaii, June 10-15.

7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion

Andreas, Phoebe and Ned converge in Hawaii for WCPEC-7. Ned gave a tutorial 'Fundamentals of Photovoltaics', Andreas presented a paper 'Comparison Of Possible Realisations Of A Quantum Ratchet Intermediate Band Solar Cell', Phoebe presented two papers paper 'Characterization Of Sigesn For Use As A 1 Ev Sub-Cell In Multi-Junction Solar Cells' and 'Quantifying Parasitic Losses From Metal Scattering Structures In Solar Cells: How Uncertainty In Optical Constants Affects Simulation Results'. This latter paper has since been published in Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. The QPV Group also contributed to Ryan France's paper 'Multijunction Solar Cells With Graded Buffer Bragg Reflectors' that has also been published in the IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics.