Event

Part I: High Efficiency CIS Solar Cells with Simple Fabrication Method

CIS has a very high optical absorption coefficient, which makes it able to absorb more than 90% of the incident photons with energies higher than 1.04 eV within 1-2 µm thickness. Because of the high absorption coefficient and low bandgap, high quality CIS solar cells can have a very high short circuit current compared with other thin film material or other type of solar cells. We offer a very simple two-step process based on annealing stacked elemental layers under selenium vapor within a graphite box, followed by a potassium fluoride postdeposition treatment, which is a low-cost and highly manufacturable approach. We are able to reproducibly achieve above 12% conversion efficiency, with the champion cell exhibiting near-record 14.7% efficiency. Our results indicate that perhaps the CIS system is less sensitive to elaborate processing steps and details than previously thought. This simple approach offers a very useful experimental platform from which to study a variety of thin film PV research topics.

Part II:   Waveguides Bragg Gratings in Integrated Photonics

Integrated photonics on silicon-based material, combining the two great inventions of the last century, silicon technology and the photonic technology, is paving the way for a monolithically integrated optoelectronic platform in a single chip. Being a prevailing research topic in the past decade, it has seen tremendous progresses with the successful development of high-performance components. Among all integrated photonics platforms, the silicon nitride planar waveguide platform provides benefits like low optical losses, transparency over a wide wavelength range (400-2350 nm), compatibility with CMOS and wafer-scale foundry processes, and high-power handling capabilities.