Phd Position: Applying High Efficiency Si Pv Principles to Halide Perovskites

**Work Activities**:
As the perovskite layer quality increases, the surfaces and interfaces begin to dominate the remaining efficiency loss. The Si PV industry has developed standardized tools and protocols for rapidly screening new passivation and contact materials and quantifying their quality. There is so far no comparable standardization in halide perovskite PV which hampers further efficiency improvements. Furthermore, doping and impurity gettering in Si are highly controlled using drive-in from external surface layers (e.g. borosilicate or phosphosilicate glass) followed by RTA or furnace annealing, while there is no comparable procedure for controlling doping density or gettering defects in halide perovskite PV. Even measuring doping density (or free carrier concentration) is difficult in halide perovskites, while this is a standard rapid measurement in crystalline Si PV and a critical parameter to optimize for peak performance.

The goal of this project is translate concepts developed in high-efficiency Si PV R&D to halide perovskites. There are both fundamental and more applied aspects to the project. The fundamental Research questions are:
Can we develop a comparable suite of standard characterization techniques for halide perovskites as exist in high-efficiency Si PV? These include for example measuring surface/interface recombination velocity, bulk vs. surface lifetime, J0, implied Voc, doping density/carrier concentration.

Can we develop strategies to reliably dope halide perovskites, especially selectively at the contacts? These could include more traditional doping but also remote doping (e.g. in analogy to doped poly-Si tunnel contacts or doped a-Si heterojunction contacts).

**Research goals**:

- Develop fast screening method for passivating contacts analogous to the Sinton tester used in Si PV research and development. Use this to find improved carrier selective contacts and passivation layers.
- Implement optical annealing with pulsed lasers to provide highly controllable interfacial processing (annealing, doping, passivation, recrystallization) with simultaneous tracking and feedback via PL and absorption signal, taking advantage of developments in machine learning.

**Embedding**

The project is part of a large national initiative, SolarLab, aimed at coordinating all academic solar research in the Netherlands and supporting the Dutch solar photovoltaic industry. For more information, visit solarlab-nl.org.

You will join 40 other PhD students from across the Netherlands to tackle fundamental research challenges that underpin industrial activities in solar. This team of PhD students will participate in workshops together and closely collaborate with industrial and applied research partners to ensure that research outcomes are swiftly implemented in the solar PV industry.

**Qualifications**:
**Work environment**:
The Nanoscale Solar Cells Group synthesizes advanced metal and semiconducting nanostructures, characterizes their material properties and integrates them into novel device structures with the aim of improving our fundamental understanding of light absorption, charge separation, recombination and transport at the nanometer scale.

We have 2 main focus areas: improving halide perovskite solar cells and using light to drive and monitor chemical reactions. We value diversity in every sense: research background, ethnicity, gender, nationality, orientation, age and beliefs and see developing talent from underrepresented groups as an essential part of or mission.

We offer a highly collaborative and supportive environment, fostering strong connections both within the group and with our national and international partners. PhD students benefit from a variety of courses designed to enhance their research skills.

**Working conditions**:

- The working atmosphere at the institute is largely determined by young, enthusiastic, mostly foreign employees. Communication is informal and runs through short lines of communication.
- The position is intended as full-time (40 hours / week, 12 months / year) appointment in the service of the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) for the duration of four years
- The starting salary is 2.781 Euro’s gross per month and a range of employment benefits.
- After successful completion of the PhD research a PhD degree will be granted at the University of Amsterdam.
- Several courses are offered, specially developed for PhD-students.

**More information?**:
**Application**:

- Online screening may be part of the selection._

**Diversity code**:
AMOLF has won the NNV Diversity Award 2022, which is awarded every two years by the Netherlands Physical Society for demonstrating the most successful implementation of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

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