Postdoctoral Research Associate in Silicon Solar Cells

We are seeking a new Research Associate to join our research team at the Oxford Materials Department for a one-year project. They will be playing an active role in the research activities and contributing to the overall team’s aim of understanding and developing methods for improving solar cells. In this project, they will be responsible for investigating, developing, and optimising a new silicon solar cell architecture based on highly charged dielectric nanolayers. In addition to the fundamental work required to demonstrate the high efficiency of the cell, they will develop the cell production processes in collaboration with a team of doctoral students, postdocs, and academics at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick in the UK. They will extensively use solar cell processing and characterisation techniques, including dielectric thin film synthesis via oxidation, anodisation, CVD, and ALD. Electrical, optical and morphological characterisation will be conducted using techniques such as photoconductance, SunsVoc, standardised IV, reflectance spectrometry, SEM, AFM, and Electron Beam Induced Current. 

This project will involve working with external commercial and academic partners, requiring excellent communication and organisational skills. The role will also involve publishing and disseminating scientific results through journal articles and conference presentations and developing new grant proposals for future work. Responsibilities will also include involvement with other projects in the research group regarding supervision and mentoring of junior students, and support for developing new research topics within the research team’s fields of expertise.

This project aims to develop a new cell technology in which the drawbacks of high temperature processing are avoided, the efficiency potential of a single junction is fully exploited, and a route to implement tandem and bifacial architectures is directly possible. This project will develop a charged oxide inversion layer (COIL) solar cell by integrating advanced nanoscale thin-film materials to augment the PV potential of a silicon absorber. This novel cell architecture has great commercial potential, while providing a direct route to use in emerging selective contact, tandem, and bifacial designs. This project will deliver the fundamental understanding necessary to exploit the Inversion Layer cell architecture by engineering highly charged dielectric thin-films. It brings together teams at the Universities of Oxford and Warwick with world-leading expertise in silicon surface passivation, carrier lifetime, and impurity management for the development of PV devices. The aim is to conduct the fundamental work necessary to demonstrate our proposed high efficiency, low temperature and rapid fabrication route for the novel COIL solar cell. This will facilitate a step-reduction in the cost per Watt of PV electricity, thus producing a disruptive change in the advancement of this important renewable energy industry.

All applications must be made online using the Oxford University E-Recruitment system, no later than 12 noon on 12 February 2024. You will be required to upload a CV and a 2-page Supporting Statement as part of your application. Please do not attach any manuscripts, papers, transcripts, mark sheets or certificates.

Interviews are scheduled to take place via MS Teams video call on the week commencing 19 February 2024.