Dr. Teodor Todorov, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, USA
By Dr. Teodor Todorov, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, USA.
We live in an exciting time of solar energy landscape changing faster than ever. Commercial PV module prices are dropping more rapidly than even the targets of some advanced research government programs. PV has already reached grid parity in many places signaling the advent of a new era of consumer-driven renewable energy expansion. As installation and other expenses become dominant, the advantages of thin-film photovoltaic technologies can no longer be limited to low cost and scalability. They must at the same time stand up to the standards of crystalline silicon in terms of efficiency under real, reasonably long-term operation conditions. One path to increase the efficiency of thin-film devices is by employing tandem structures with multiple absorbers. We discuss the most recent developments in the field, including IBM’s pioneering monolithic chalcogenide-perovskite tandem devices. While there are still concerns about the long-term stability of organometallic halide perovskites, there is a need for accelerated exploration of other existing and emerging photovoltaic materials suitable for tandem applications. We report new record results with stable, inorganic, high-bandgap devices via combinatorial studies.
Biography
Teodor Todorov completed his PhD in Materials Science at the Jaume-I University (Spain). He has always been attracted to low-cost and scalable solar energy technologies and explored different non-vacuum routes for PV films at Hahn-Meitner Institut (now Helmhotz-Zentrum, Berlin), IRDEP (l’Institut de Recherche et Développement sur l’Énergie Photovoltaïque, Paris) and IEC (Institute of Energy Conversion, Delaware). In 2008 he joined IBM T. J. Watson Research Center where his World-record results with CZTSSe photovoltaic technology motivated the launch of many research projects at the company and around the globe. He invented numerous thin film device structures, methods and processing equipment that lead to more record results including CZTSSe, solution-processed CIGS and monolithic tandem perovskite solar cells. He is currently expanding the area of his research towards other thin-film materials for photovoltaic and energy storage applications.