2024 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit

Symposium EN07-Multijunction Devices for Solar Energy Conversion

Photovoltaics (PV) is currently at an exciting point in its trajectory. Having recently passed 1 TW of installed capacity world-wide, PV is delivering on its promise to supply the globe with clean energy. However, to meet the growing electricity demand that is required to decarbonize multiple sectors, the growth rate must continue to increase for several more decades. Tandem or multijunction solar cells offer the clearest path to high efficiency and high areal energy density photovoltaic energy conversion, with a great deal of recent effort focused on metal halide perovskite materials. Theoretically and at the laboratory scale, increasing the number of junctions is a simple way to create a record-setting device. Tandem devices can be made using sub-cells out of the same material system with tunable bandgaps (e.g all III-V or all-perovskite tandems) or by combining different material systems into “hybrid tandem” devices (e.g. perovskite/Si tandems). There are multiple approaches to interconnecting the sub-cells in a tandem stack that have different trade-offs in terms of efficiency, cost, and manufacturability. There are also other energy conversion applications, such as the photoelectrochemical production of chemical fuels through the reduction of water or CO2, or thermophotovoltaic devices that can convert heat to electricity.

To continue advances in tandem and multijunction devices, sustained material research in key and emerging areas along the value chain is vital, including: (i) high efficiency device concepts and architectures for multi-junction solar cells; (ii) development of transparent, carrier-selective contact layers and interfaces; (iii) modeling the performance and energy yield of tandem devices; (iv) advances in packaging and outdoor performance of multijunction devices, and (v) unique reliability challenges of tandem devices, particularly those containing metal halide perovskites. The proposed Multijunction devices for solar energy conversion symposium focuses on these topics but more generally seeks to encompass any materials research with the potential to advance multijunction devices for energy conversion.



Topics will include:

  • Demonstrations of multijunction solar cells and modules
  • Novel architectures for tandem/multijunction devices
  • Development of new absorber materials (including metal halide perovskites)
  • Materials and interfaces for multijunction devices (e.g. passivation layers, transparent conductive oxides)
  • Manufacturing considerations for tandem devices
  • Novel application for tandem devices (e.g. thermophotovoltaics, photoelectrochemistry using tandem photoelectrodes)
  • Modeling approaches for tandem performance (e.g. energy yield modeling)
  • Advances in packaging and outdoor performance of tandem/multijunction devices

Invited Speakers:

  • Steve Albrecht (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Germany)
  • Henk Bolink (Universitat de València, Spain)
  • Gianlucca Coletti (TNO, Netherlands)
  • Adriene Creatore (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands)
  • Stefaan De Wolf (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia)
  • Marika Edoff (Uppsala University, Sweden)
  • Giles Eperon (Swift Solar Inc., USA)
  • Pilar Espinet Gonzales (The Aerospace Corporation, USA)
  • Tyler Grassmann (The Ohio State University, USA)
  • Zachary Holman (Beyond Silicon, USA)
  • Bill McMahon (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
  • Laura Miranda (OxfordPV, Germany)
  • Nakita Noel (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
  • Ulrich Paetzold (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany)
  • Erin Sanehira (CubicPV, USA)
  • Vera Steinman (First Solar, USA)
  • Eva Unger (Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Germany)
  • Menglei Xu (JinkoSolar, China)
  • Xiaodan Zhang (Nankai University, China)
  • Kai Zhu (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)

Symposium Organizers

Emily Warren
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
USA

David P. Fenning
University of California, San Diego
Department of Nanoengineering
USA

Monica Morales-Masis
University of Twente
MESA+ Institute
Netherlands

Hairen Tan
Nanjing University
College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
China

Topics

III-V perovskites