The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to create a transformative, sustainable photovoltaic solution that will accelerate cost declines of renewable photovoltaic energy technologies. Today's commercial solar cell technologies have limited opportunity for significant efficiency improvements. The product of this research project integrated with commercial solar cells will enable breakthrough improvement in conversion efficiency and power output. Solar cells and modules incorporating this technology will provide high power density and long term performance stability to drive cost-reduction of renewable solar energy and accelerated growth of solar installation projects. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will expand the knowledge base on a new class of solar absorbers materials for solar cell device integration. From a basic-science perspective, the proposed research enables new opportunities in science and engineering to investigate performance of superabsorbing chalcogenide materials integrated into solar cells. The new class of proposed absorber materials eliminates the need for the traditional n-type sulfide materials to create the p-n junction, enabling the development of unique solar cell configurations. This research project will focus on establishing absorber deposition processes to control the composition and morphology of the absorber layer and relate it to device performance characteristics of resulting solar cells. The proposed research objectives are to reproducibly demonstrate high device performance and establish a pathway to achieve continued improvement.
