Recent News of the Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics

2024
2023
  • Bright Minds #3 with Abdessalem Aribia: Revolutionizing the battery market

  • Bright Minds #2 with Evgeniia Gilshtein: Paving the way for tomorrow's printed electronics

  • Huagui Lai received Best Poster Award for his poster "High-Performance Flexible All-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells and Mini-Modules" at the prestigious 34th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference PVSEC-34, Shenzhen, China, November 2023.
  • Shih-Chi Yang received SPS Award with relation to Energy Technology, sponsored by Hitachi Energy Switzerland AG for his PhD thesis "High performance bifacial Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells with silver promoted low-temperature process".
  • Yaroslav Romanyuk will take over as head of Empa's "Thin Films and Photovoltaics" laboratory on July 1 this year. He succeeds Ayodhya Tiwari, who is retiring after just over 14 years as head of the lab.
  • PhD student Andre Müller recieved Best poster award with the topic "Understanding seed layers for lithium metal plating in all-solid-state batteries with 3D microscopy" at EMRS Spring Meeting 2023, Strasbourg, May 2023.
  • New process boosts efficiency of bifacial CIGS thin film solar cells.

2022
  • A new record of 22.2% efficiency for CIGS on flexible polymer substrate announced at WCPEC-8, September 2022!

  • Shih-Chi Yang received a WCPEC-8 Student Award with the topic "High Efficiency Bifacial (Ag,Cu)(In,Ga)Se2 Thin Film Solar Cells Grown at Low Temperature", Milano, September 2022.

  • Ramis Hertwig won a poster award with the topic "Atomic Layer Deposited Metal Oxide Buffer Layers to Mitigate Sputter Damage on Co-Evaporated CIGS Solar Cell Absorbers", at the virtual E-MRS Spring Meeting 2022, May-June 2022.

2021
  • New record of 21.4% efficiency for CIGS on flexible polymer substrate is set, September 2021!

  • PhD student Sami Bolat recieved Best Poster Award at Swiss NanoConvention 2021, sponsored by the Swiss Micro & Nanotechnology Network for the poster: "Printed oxide transistors for flexible electronics", June 2021.

  • Dr. Evgeniia Gilshtein received Best Image Award at Swiss NanoConvention 2021, sponsored by the Swiss Micro & Nanotechnology Network for the image: "The alumina ceramic symbol of Peace and Trust in the World", June 2021.

  • Empa's new technology for printed electronics is currently a finalist in the OE-A-Competition 2021: a new level of security realised in the form of invisible buttons printed with transparent conductive ink on the transparent carrier material, the position of which is known only to insiders.
2020
  • Ramis Hertwig received Poster award at the Virtual Chalcogenide PV Conference 2020, for his presentation on ALD-ZnMgO as buffer layer on co-evaporated CIGS", May 2020.
  • Empa researchers have achieved a milestone in the search for a solid electrolyte, the conductive medium for future solid-state batteries.
  • A new revolution in the production of electronic circuits is on the way: Empa researchers are working on electronics that come out of printers.
2019
  • PhD student Sami Bolat is a winner of IEEE Electron Devices Society PhD Student Fellowship, 2019 for demonstration of his significant ability to perform independent research in the fields of electron devices and a proven history of academic excellence.
  • Dr. Evgeniia Gilshtein received Best poster prize at the 5th Swiss ePrint Conference (The Swiss Conference on Printed Electronics and Functional Materials), for the poster: "Conductive nanoparticle ITO films obtained by dye-assisted sintering".
  • New record for flexible thin-film solar cells is set!
  • Prof. Maksym Kovalenko awarded Rössler Prize for his research on bright nanoparticles, June 2019.
  • Dr. Fan Fu received ETH Medal for his doctoral thesis, January 2019, title of honored work: "Efficient and Stable NIR-Transparent Perovskite Solar Cells for Thin- Film Tandem Photovoltaics".
2018
  • PhD student Enrico Avancini received Young Scientist Award, at E-MRS Spring Meeting, June 2018, in Strassbourg, title of the publication: "Voids and compositional non-uniformities at CIGS surfaces and bulk".
  • Dr. Romain Carron received Poster Award at E-MRS Spring Meeting, June 2018, Strassbourg, title: "Bandgap of solar cell absorbers: a comparison of various determination methods".
  • PhD student Thomas Feurer received Student Award at EU PVSEC, September 2018, in Amsterdam, title: "Narrow Bandgap Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells for Tandem Application".
  • PhD student Shutao Wang received Chemistry Travel Award (for EMRS Fall Meeting, Warsaw, 17-20 September 2018) SCNAT and the Swiss Chemical Society, June 2018, title: "Efficient Aluminum Chloride–Graphite Battery and Its Current Collector".
  • Paper on Novel back contact reflector for high efficiency CIGS thin-film solar cells is published in Progress in Photovoltaics
2017
  • Review on the current status of Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)2 (CIGS) thin film solar cell technology
  • Publication in Progress in Photovoltaics about the Impact of grading and Cu deficiency in CIGS solar cells