Yoon Research Group (ECE, University of Utah)
Dr. Yoon won her second DOE grant. This project team will develop ways to measure the electronic properties of features in perovskite absorbers while the device is exposed to high temperature, bright light, and other potential causes of damage. These features include the surface of the solar cell; the bulk of the grains, or tiny perovskite crystals, in the solar cell; and the grain boundaries, or the spaces between the grains in the cell.
We are so excited about two DOE projects.
This DOE SIPS project aims to develop a cadmium telluride (CdTe) passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) solar cell that comprises a patterned aluminum oxide layer and small metal contacts defined on individual grains for greater cell efficiency and power output. PERC cells are designed to capture more light on the back surface of the cell. The team will use current generated by a concentrated stream of electrons to detect any defects in the PERC design and quantify changes in physical parameters, such as the components’ efficiency, using 2- and 3-D numerical models.
PhD THESIS DEFENSE
“Study of Materials and Materials Integration for Energy Harvesting Devices” by David Magginetti
David completed his defense today. Congratulations!
Dr. Yoon invited to the Editorial Board of Applied Microscopy. This journal covers all the interdisciplinary fields of technological developments in new microscopy methods and instrumentation and their applications to biological or material science for determination of structure and chemistry (see details here).
The peer-reviewed articles will be available through Applied Microscopy and SpringerOne.
We congratulate our team member, Dinorah Segovia, for winning the Individual Capstone Project Funding at the University of Utah. She receives $1,000 for her research project of Si plasmonic micro/nanowire sensors. Dinorah is using a customized wet-oxidation furnace in our lab to engineer the size of the nanowires for tunable plasmonic resonances.
We appreciate the great help from Nanofab staff members (particularly Mr. Tony Olsen and Mr. Brian Baker) to make this possible. We are grateful for the generous support of the University and the ECE Department. See the news posted on the ECE Department website (ECE_Story).
Two papers have been submitted to the EMC (62th Electronic Materials Conference; Columbus, OH) this year. Both papers report our recent results obtained in close collaborations with NRL (Naval Research Lab), NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), and the Physics Department (Prof. J. Gerton) and the Nuclear Program (Profs. G. Sojoden, E. Cazalas) at the University of Utah.
We welcome our former undergrad researcher, Dean Collett. He is pursuing his graduate degree in the ECE Department, while working for Air Force. Welcome back!
Dinorah (undergrad student in ECE) has received a UROP award for Spring 2020. Her project will focus on the development of wet oxidation processes to fabricate 3D optoelectronic devices. We are excited about this research opportunity.
This year, the advanced Electron-Beam Microscopy class (ECE 6960-006) was extended to senior undergrad students (ECE 5960-007). The final project includes a poster presentation of individual students’ projects. The interdisciplinary course provides fundamental knowledge about the (scanning) electron microscopy and the practical lab sessions at Utah’s Nanofab. The best SEM image selected by the guests is “3D microstructured pillar array” taken by Dinorah Segovia (bottom left). Students, thank you for presenting your beautiful work.
