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"Next-Generation Solar Cells beyond Silicon" - Professor Meng Tao
Friday, September 18, 2009 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM CREOL 102
Next-Generation Solar Cells beyond Silicon
Professor Meng Tao
University of Texas at Arlington
Abstract:
This presentation will provide an overview of the current status of solar cell technologies,
including the bottlenecks facing first-generation wafer-silicon and second-generation
thin-film solar cells. It will focus on our approach to next-generation solar cells, i.e.
solution-based fabrication of completely-inorganic solar cells. They can be as cheap as
organic cells but as efficient as crystalline silicon cells. These new solar cells are made
on abundant, non-toxic and low-cost metal chalcogenides (including oxides). Major
technical challenges in utilizing metal chalcogenides for next-generation solar cells will
be outlined, along with our recent progress in meeting these challenges: 1) an
electrochemically-synthesized p-n junction in cuprous oxide, 2) n-type doping in
electrochemically-synthesized cuprous oxide, 3) record-low resistivity for chemicallydeposited
zinc oxide and 4) an omni-directional, broad-spectrum and universal
antireflective coating by solution deposition.
Biography:
Professor Meng Tao is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of
Texas at Arlington and a Visiting Professor of Electronic and Computer Engineering at
the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His career started in the early
1980’s when he worked on amorphous silicon deposition from disilane as a graduate
student at Zhejiang University. He spent the next nine years with the State Key Lab for
Silicon Materials in Hangzhou, China. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and
Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998. His current
research focuses on defect passivation on semiconductor surfaces and in bulk
semiconductors, solution fabrication of inorganic solar cells and predictive modeling of
chemical vapor deposition. He has received a number of awards and recognitions,
including the South Central Bell Professorship in 2001, Outstanding Young Faculty
Award in 2004 and Research Excellence Awards in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
For More Information:
James M. Fenton, Ph.D.
Director, Florida Solar Energy Center
Voice: 321/638-1002
Email: JFenton@fsec.ucf.edu
<A href="http://www.creol.ucf.edu/TheCollege/A
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