Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Federal research dollars will help
South Dakota State
University scientists build a first-of-its-kind microscope that
could ultimately help scientists at SDSU and elsewhere develop
better solar cells for converting sunlight to electricity.
|
| SDSU professor Venkateswara Bommisetty has a
National Science Foundation grant to build a first-of-its-kind
microscope that could help scientists build better solar
cells. |
Professor Venkateswara Bommisetty in SDSU's Department of
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science will build a new
photoactivated, scanning probe microscopy tool that makes
significant improvements on the existing scanning probe
microscope.
"It will simultaneously measure efficiency-limiting factors by
identifying defects, their structure and locations in a wide
variety of solar cells, that existing microscopes are not able to
do," Bommisetty said.
"This instrument will also probe the light-energy conversion
mechanisms in other optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting
diodes."
The new equipment will be developed by an SDSU team under
Bommisetty's leadership. Bommisetty received $456,000 for
development of the scanning probe microscopy tool so that he and
his colleagues can study photoactivated processes - processes
activated by light - at the nanoscale. The grant is from the
National Science Foundation. SDSU and its Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science are supplying an additional
$200,000 to make a total project of about $650,000.
Bommisetty's career as a researcher has focused in part on
developing better technologies to make such measurements at the
nanoscale level.
"It is extremely important. It is a very hot area of research,"
Bommisetty noted. "Researchers elsewhere are facing the same
problem. Application of these new technologies for the first time
is important to help SDSU make its mark in developing new solar
cell technologies."
The grant will create two new jobs in Brookings as Bommisetty
hires a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student to build the
microscopy tool under his direction, acquiring valuable skills in
the process.
The grant will also help acquire high-tech components, such as
various types of laser generators and scanners necessary to build
the scanning probe microscope.
There are three types of solar cells, Bommisetty noted:
inorganic solar cells based on materials, such as silicon; organic
solar cells that use carbon-based polymers; and hybrid solar cells
that combine different technologies.
"The faculty members at SDSU are working on all three types of
solar cells. In each of the respective solar cells, the challenges
are different," Bommisetty said. "We know that all these
technologies can be far more efficient than what they are today.
The problem is, we don't know what factors are limiting the
efficiencies of these solar cells. This microscope is specifically
designed to identify defects that limit solar cell efficiency."
Developing such a microscope has been the goal of solar cell
researchers for a long time. Importantly, the scanning probe
microscopy tool is designed to measure different variables at the
same time - a key advance in such technology.
"Simultaneous is a key word for our work, because if we measure
one variable at a time, we won't know if we are modifying other
variables during measurement or not," Bommisetty said. "If we
measure them all at the same time, we can determine the exact
problem and can effectively develop methods to address the
problem."
Bommisetty said SDSU already is acquiring components and
researchers will begin assembling the new scanning probe microscopy
tool in 2010. One version of the microscope will go into the
molecular electronics bay of a new $1.25 million SDSU cleanroom,
planned for construction in 2010, so that scientists can use it to
test new solar cells.
SOURCE