After being on hiatus since September 2019, Advances in Photovoltaics returned to the Institute of Physics in London on 23rd March 2022. Sponsored by the IOP Ion and Plasma Surface Interactions Group and the IOP Energy Group, this one-day meeting series has been a fixture in the solar research calendar for over ten years and after a wait of more than two years, the UK PV research community embraced the opportunity to gather in-person, with over 50 attendees, 10 speakers and an excellent selection of poster presentations.
The morning session focussed on cadmium telluride PV, with the keynote talk presented by Gang Xiong, R&D Centre Director for First Solar, the world’s largest producer of thin film PV. In an excellent opportunity for UK researchers to hear first-hand from such a significant player in global PV manufacturing, Gang discussed “The Future of Thin Film Photovoltaics” from the First Solar perspective, describing recent developments in processing and manufacture and projecting how First Solar will be exploring tandem architectures. This was followed by an invited talk by Kurt Barth, formerly of Colorado State University and newly at Loughborough University, discussing “Advanced Processing and Characterization of CdTe and CdSeTe Devices”, and talks on “Cd-Rich Grown CdTe:As Thin Film Solar Cells Displaying High Efficiency”, by Ochai Oklobia from Swansea University and “A Sodium Fluoride Doping Approach to CdTe Solar Cells”, delivered by Tom Shalvey of the University of Liverpool. The morning demonstrated how CdTe technologies are moving forward at an increased pace.
The early afternoon session shifted focus towards the exciting recent developments in perovskite PV, with invited talks from Laura Miranda Perez of Oxford PV reviewing developments of their perovskite-on-silicon tandems as they approach the marketplace with a talk entitled “Addressing Climate Change with Perovskite-On-Silicon; Fast Integration of a New Technology”, and Sam Stranks of the University of Cambridge discussing his latest work on the fundamental understanding of recombination processes in perovskite PV with his talk on “Understanding Nanoscale Recombination and Instabilities in Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics”. Further talks were delivered on “Aerosol Treatment for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells”, by Joe Briscoe of Queen Mary University of London, and “Efficient Ultrathin AgBiS2 Solar Cells via Cation Disorder Engineering”, from Sean Kavanagh of Imperial College London.
The late afternoon session continued the theme of fundamental structural explorations of perovskite PV with Steve Hepplestone of the University of Exeter Centre for Metamaterials Research and Innovation delivering a talk entitled “How Hybrid Organic Inorganic Perovskites can be Enhanced Through Structuring” and Laura Herz of the University of Oxford exploring “Metal Halide Perovskites: Links Between Electronic Transport, Ion Migration and Microstructure” to close the meeting.
SuperSolar woulkd like to thank the excellent line up of speakers, as well as session chairs Stuart Irvine of Swansea University and Alison Walker of the University of Bath, who contributed to a valuable opportunity for early careers researchers to present their work and catch up on the valuable networking opportunities that have been missed during the Covid pandemic, and look forward to hosting the next Advances in Photovoltaics meeting soon.