Northumbria Photovoltaics

Overview

Northumbria University Photovoltaics (NUPV) is a research group focused on developing new materials and devices for efficient, sustainable conversion of energy from sunlight. Our works spans a broad range of materials from polycrystalline thin films potentially suitable for TW electricity generation as well as the manufacture of novel devices. Key drivers for our work are increasing efficiency, cost reduction, sustainability and exploiting performance benefits afforded by semiconductor nanostructures. Our approach is highly collaborative and we work across a broad spectrum of academic and industrial collaborators.

LabRAM Soleil

We have recently taken delivery of our first Raman system. A fully kitted LabRAM Soleil from Horiba and will a heavily used instrument for all our practical research.

Full specs:
• Multimodal confocal Raman imaging microscope
• Class 1 laser system , fully interlocked.
• Continuously adjustable motorized pinhole for true confocal analysis
• Excitation: 405 nm, 532 nm, 638 nm and 785 nm
• NUV-Vis-NIR spectrometer (Czerny-Turner 330 mm). Gratings of 2400, 1800 and 600 gr/mm.
• Fully motorised XYZ stage
• Microscope objectives: 5x, 20x, 100X, 50x (long working distance), 74x achromatic and dedicated calibration objective.
• CCD detector, TE cooled
• THCELL-120 Soleil temperature controlled stage, -25°C to +120°C.

North East Space Communications Accelerator (NESCA)

The group has secured £2.5M from  EPSRC's place-based impact acceleration accounts (IAAs) to form the North East Space Communications Accelerator (NESCA). NESCA will focus primarily on the development of new resilient space communications technology. Read the full press release here.

July 2021

We've been busy interviewing for a research fellow this week as part of EPSRC funded SolPV.  Exciting to expand the group further!

NU-FAB

NUPV has been awarded a new grant from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to increase our manufacturing capability called, Northumbria University Fabrication or NU-FAB. The aim of the programme is to create a facility which allows researchers from academia and industry to rapidly protoype devices and components for sustainable energy. Please see this press release if you are interested in learning more.

New staff

Since the beginning of the year we have welcomed 3 new Vice Chancellor fellows. Dr Devendra Tiwari has join us from Bristol, Dr Oliver Hutter from Liverpool and Dr Giulia Longo from Oxford. More details to follow.

Staffing update

Dr Qu has been appointed as ReNU's centre manager and will start in September. Yongtao has been with us since 2012 first as a PhD student and then a research fellow. This position will allow Yongtao to develop as an independent researcher and become a rounded academic.

After successfully defending her thesis last spring and graduating earlier this summer, Xinya has been appointed as research fellow to develop the annealing and printing processes as part of a new EPSRC funding project: Photovoltaic Paint (EP/T005491/1 ). Dr Xu will start on 02 September 2019.

Best of luck to both!

NECEM Conference

The team attended the recent NECEM's International Conference on Energy Materials and Interfaces in July. It was a great scientific program from across the energy sector with scintillating talks and presentations.

Yongtao, Stephen N, Nik and Neil presented their latest work and Bethan and Stephen C offered poster presentation.

Stephen C was awarded the "Chemical Science" poster prize by the organisers.

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Renewable Energy Northeast Universities (ReNU)

NUPV is pleased to announce the award of £5.2M from EPSRC to create ReNU which will train the next generation of specialists in small scale renewable and sustainable distributed energy over the next 5-8 years. NUPV played a leading role in this bid and further details may be found here.

EMRS 2018 Strasbourg

NUPV PhD students presented their latest results at the European Materials Research Society spring meeting in Strasbourg in June.  An excellent experience in the heart of Europe and thanks to the conference organisers!

May '18 NECEM Seminar

Dr Guillaume Zoppi gave an overview of NUPV's research into nanocrystals ink for photovoltaics at Newcastle University for the 3rd NECEM seminar (16/05/18)

March '18 NECEM Launch

The North East Centre for Energy Materials (NECEM) was officially launched on 16th March 2018. This  research colloboration between Durham, Newcastle and Northumbria Universities will run until spring 2021.  Read about it here.

PVSEC-27

Dr Qu recently attended PVSEC-27 in Japan and gave a talk on his latest research: a compartive study of ligands in Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 solar cell prepared from nanoparticle inks. He also took the opportunity to visit Prof Minemoto's laboratory and learn the trade in high efficiency thin film devices.

EU PVSEC 2016 @ Munich

Usha and Arezoo attended this year European PV conference held in Munich. Usha presented a poster entitled "A quantum engineering approach to voltage preservation in intermediate band solar cells" and Arezoo gave a talk on her work "Sodium Induced Microstructural Changes in MOCVD Grown CdTe Thin Films ".

Arezoo Amirkhalili: “I believe EU PVSEC 2016 was a great platform to discuss the most recent and relevant developments in PV technologies. This unique conference that took place in Munich, Germany from 20th to 24th of June is the largest international conference for PV research, technology and applications. I was given the opportunity to give an oral presentation on my current work in CdTe thin films, which was a thrilling experince. Also, I was lucky enough to attend InterSolar Exhibition that took place at the same time, to explore the top international PV industries. EU PVSEC was an amazing opportunity to meet with some old colleagues and lecturers, make new connections and spread awareness about my research at Northumbria University.”