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High Efficiency Solar Absorbers

High Efficiency Solar Absorbers

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Weniger 304
Ram Ravichandran, EECS
Thin film solar cells (TFSCs) represent a growing share of the photovoltaics market. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and CdTe based TFSCs are the current leading absorber materials with device efficiencies approaching 20 percent. The relative non-abundance of indium and tellurium along with the toxicity of cadmium renders these materials unattractive for large scale commercial photovoltaics. Developing new earth-abundant materials that effectively absorb the solar spectrum enables thinner, flexible solar cells while still maintaining high efficiencies. Properties of new thin-film solar absorbers will be discussed.
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