Phuong-Linh Nguyen is a PhD student working on the bonding and optical management for III-V/Si tandem solar cells.
She graduated from Chimie ParisTech (ENSCP) in 2018 with a double degree in Materials science and Nano objects (SMNO) with the University of Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC). She is working towards her PhD since early 2019.
Her research project currently focusses on the development of a new architecture for III-V on silicon tandem solar cells. III-V based solar cells are well-known as the best candidate for high-efficiency tandem cells on silicon. Record efficiency (> 34 %) have been obtained with tandem fabricated by direct wafer bonding. The main drawback of this technology is the cost. The goal of this project is therefore to design different architectures for a multifunctional stack of TCO layers that will be inserted between III-V top cell and silicon bottom cell in order to facilitate the bonding, the transport of carriers and the light trapping for cell thickness reduction. Materials fabrication and bonding methods compatible with industrially scalable and low-cost processes are developing within the team. This work is based on the equipment and know-how of C2N and IPVF (Institute for Photovoltaics of Ile-de-France), in close collaboration with EDF and the Fraunhofer ISE in Germany.