Friday , April 6, 2012

Interdisciplinary Physics Presents

Science at the Edge Seminar, 11:30 a.m., Room 1400 BPS Bldg.

Speaker: Victor Karpov, University of Toledo

Victor Karpov

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo

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Thin film photovoltaics (PV), particularly based on CdTe and CIGS absorbers, are rapidly taking over world energy markets. Bud do we understand their operations?  Is that the same old concept of illuminated p-n junction making it from one textbook to another or there is some new physics behind their success? As an introduction, I will give a brief ‘first hand’ account of a history of the First Solar LLC, the company that started thin film PV to become a world leader: its product, evolution, and current problems. The topic of physics per se will start with a short review of the mainstream understanding of classical photovoltaics (crystalline Si, etc.)  showing that it is absolutely insufficient to understand thin film photovoltaics and yet is blindly applied. I will then introduce several qualitatively different concepts based on the experimental observations that form a new physics of thin-film PV. They include the concept of random diode arrays, piezo-photovoltaic coupling, and reach-through interactions. My talk will include some practical implications, particularly the “red wine effect” highlighted in the media. At the end, I will try to convey the message that physicists owe a lot to the fascinating field of thin film PV that keeps evolving by trial and error.

 

 

Shawna Prater / Secretary

Astrophysics Group

Michigan State University

567 Wilson Road, Room 3261

Biomedical Physical Sciences Bldg

East Lansing, MI 48824-2320

Ph: (517) 884-5601 Fax (517) 432-8802

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