SEMINAR LMGP - 10/07/2024 - Poorani Gnanasambandan

"HIGH PERFORMANCE TRANSPARENT CONDUCTING MATERIALS FOR SOLAR CELLS  "

Poorani Gnanasambandan

Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)

University of Luxembourg

Thanks to my PhD supervisor:  Dr. Renaud Leturcq, LIST and collaborators

Abstract 

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been widely used for the development of buffer layers on copper-indium-gallium-sulfide and copper-indium-gallium selenide solar cells with appropriate electronic properties. In this work, we investigate the interface chemistry and mixing of binary ALD processes on the growth and resulting optoelectronic properties by altering the supercycle process parameters (pulse ratio and bilayer period) of the ternary ALD process for zinc magnesium oxide (ZMO). We show that the interplay between ZnO and MgO interfaces in the synthesis of ZMO leads to enhanced growth of the MgO layer by the ZnO surface. We propose probing the effect of the bilayer period in growth of ternary oxides by ALD can serve as an effective alternative to QCM in understanding the mixing dynamics which can be extended to many other materials. Furthermore, we establish bilayer period as an effective parameter alongside composition to tune the bandgap and demonstrate the application of which by depositing ALD grown ZMO buffer layers for chalcopyrite solar cells. We also investigate the structural transition of deposited films from mixed to multilayer material using bilayer period approach.

Short Bio/CV

This work was supported by Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) as part of PACE PhD program (PRIDE17/12246511/PACE).

I am from India; I completed my PhD end of last year (2023) at the University of Luxembourg titled the same as the seminar. I carried out my PhD research in Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) at Transparent and Optically Tunable Electronics (TOTE) group belonging to the Materials Research and Technology department. Prior to my PhD, I did my Erasmus Mundus Masters in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at KU Leuven, Belgium and Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.