The Stanford Photonics Research Center

Solar Cell

Corporate members may join SPRC’s Solar Cell Working Group, which provides companies access to Stanford University’s vigorous, multi-departmental solar cell research community.
 
Solar cell research includes the study of novel thin-film materials and fabrication methods and device configurations for the next generation of solar cells, which must be efficient, low cost, lightweight and flexible.
 
The five core faculty members are from the Departments of Chemical Engineering, Applied Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. Each faculty member leads an independent research effort that comprises graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists.
 
Specific areas of materials research include synthesis of novel organic and polymeric solar cell materials, nanostructured solar cell materials, low band gap compound semiconductor materials, processing of organic and polymeric solar cell materials for enhanced efficiency, interface engineering for enhanced efficiency, and modeling of energy and carrier transport in organic materials on a nanometer scale.
 
Research studies of device concepts and fabrication methods include novel deposition techniques, printed solar cells and new printing methods, fabrication of low cost solar cells, polymer solar cells, plasmon enhanced solar cells, organic solar cells on fiber, solar cell device engineering, multijunction solar cells, and low cost high-efficiency micro-concentrator inorganic solar cells.