MRI: Acquisition of a Standardized Integrated Toolset for Photovoltaics Fabrication and Characterization

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This MRI project has two main aims. The first is to advance knowledge toward the production of low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell technologies that can produce renewable energy with minimal environmental impact. Such devices convert light into electricity and are the most promising solution for providing clean energy for the future of humanity. The second is to enable training of the next generation of science and engineering experts for careers in public service and private industry. Pomona and Harvey Mudd Colleges will obtain and maintain an integrated tool set for photovoltaic research. This will enable a team of faculty and student researchers at the Claremont Colleges to efficiently build and test next-generation solar cells. The three lead faculty each have long-standing, productive research programs with high-impact journal articles and technical reports in interlocking areas of photovoltaic research. This project will enhance their local and external collaborations and accelerate their studies. Harvey Mudd and Pomona rank highly among U.S. colleges in their proportion of graduates who later earn graduate degrees in science and engineering, including many from underrepresented groups. For example, more than 70% of the PI's research students in the past 5 years have been students from underrepresented groups in STEM. Each investigator is actively developing community outreach programs with K-12 students. Efficiency of new solar cell technologies is approaching that of conventional solar cells. While the cost of conventional cells has fallen sharply, high temperature vacuum processes on glass plates are inherently more expensive than printing processes typical in new solar cells. In competing with existing solar cell technologies there are three key areas for new solar cells: efficiency, cost, and lifetime. Cell lifetime and failure mechanisms are accordingly a major focus of ongoing research. Such studies will be advanced by the acquisition and installation of a integrated tool set for photovoltaic research. Professors Hudgings and Tanenbaum conduct research on defects and degradation in various types of solar cells, including organic solar cells using electrical measurements, spatially resolved optical probing techniques, and lifetime studies both under lamps and true solar illumination on a rooftop solar tracking platform. Dr. Tanenbaum is now fabricating and characterizing perovskite solar cells including those made with mesoporous templates, similar to dye-sensitized solar cells. Dr. Van Ryswyk focuses on optimizing absorption and charge extraction techniques in dye-sensitized and quantum dot-based inverted bulk heterojunction cells. While each research group has independent projects, they hold joint meetings to discuss their research problems, methods, and results. The Claremont Colleges have a long history of successful research collaboration and shared facilities, such as a shared microscopy facility used by researchers across all five colleges, including these PIs and more than 150 others, mostly advanced undergraduates.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.