New facility set to enable nanoscale imaging of solar cells

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The interaction of light with solar cells and other electronic devices will be the focus of a new national facility at Loughborough University.

Image shows diffusion of an element at a solar cell interface. It was captured using a scanning electron microscope with cathodoluminescence capabilities
Image shows diffusion of an element at a solar cell interface. It was captured using a scanning electron microscope with cathodoluminescence capabilities - Loughborough University

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the National Facility for High Resolution Cathodoluminescence (CL) Analysis will be the first of its kind globally and open to researchers from around the world.

The facility will aid with the development of solar cell technologies, LEDs, quantum dots and other optoelectronic devices.

The properties of materials used in solar cells and optoelectronic devices are governed by processes that occur at the atomic scale.  Scheduled to open this summer, the new facility will house a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), both with cathodoluminescence capabilities that will allow researchers to compare images and pinpoint defects or impurities that affect solar cell performance.

This information can then be used to make modifications to materials or processes and improve device performance.  

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The SEM will allow researchers to analyse devices at the microscale. Important features can then be selected, removed, and analysed in the STEM at the nanoscale.

Professor Mike Walls, of the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST), and Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC)’s Dr Mark Jepson and Dr Zhaoxia Zhou led the £2.6m bid for the facility.

Professor Walls said the facility will ‘help maintain the UK's position as a research leader in photovoltaic and optoelectronic device development’.

He commented: “We are very proud to have been chosen to host the National Facility for High Resolution Cathodoluminescence. 

“Loughborough University is well known for its research in solar cells, and CREST already has a reputation for world-class materials characterisation.

“This facility will have a capability that is unique worldwide and the results will have a huge impact on our understanding of how solar cells work at the atomic level. Its impact is going to be international.”

National Facility for High Resolution Cathodoluminescence (CL) Analysis