Computational understanding of solar cell materials
Date : October 18, 2023 16:00 ~
Speaker : 박지상 (성균관대학교 나노공학과)
Professor : Prof. Dohun Kim, Prof. Sunghoon Jung, Prof. Yongjoo Baek
Location : 56동105호
Looking back at the early days of quantum mechanics, Planck's law, the Bohr model, and the photoelectric effect are the primaries. Interestingly, these theories are essential to understanding solar cells, which have attracted much attention for resolving the problem of global warming. In this talk, we will discuss the basic physics of solar cells and how first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations can be used to design semiconductor materials and therefore solar cells. First, computational databases from high-throughput DFT calculations can be used for machine learning, which is receiving a lot of attention these days [1]. Second, to develop highly efficient solar cells, a deep understanding of defects in semiconductor materials is also essential [2-5]. Grain boundaries are quite common in thin-film solar cells, and local phase mixing is another important problem. We also discuss how these defects affect semiconductor properties and thus solar cell efficiency.
[1] J.-S. Park, J. Jung, and S. Lee, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 12, 7885–7891 (2021).
[2] J.-S. Park, J. Calbo, Y.-K. Jung, L. Whalley, and A. Walsh, ACS Energy Lett. 4, 1321 (2019).
[3] J.-S. Park and A. Walsh, Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 12, 95 (2021).
[4] J.-S. Park, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 13, 4628 (2022).
[5] J.-S. Park, Z. Li, J. Wilson, W.-J. Yin, and A. Walsh, ACS Energy Lett. 5, 2231 (2020).