Chief Researcher, Photovoltaic Materials Group
National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan
Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cell for Next Generation Photovoltaics
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) containing hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite material have attracted large attention due to the meteoric rise in their solar to electric power conversion efficiency (PCE) since 2009. With in a short amount of time, perovskite solar cells have become one of today's most promising up-and-coming photovoltaic technologies.
We used heavily doped inorganic charge extraction layers in planar PSCs to achieve very rapid carrier extraction avoiding pinholes and eliminating local structural defects over large areas. This robust inorganic nature allowed fabrication of PSCs showing hysteresis-free I-V characteristics with high stability — over 90% of the initial PCE remained after 1000 hours of light soaking. Recently, we proposed a graded heterojunction structure (GHJ) to enhance the performance of inverted-PSCs, improving photoelectron collection and reducing recombination loss, achieving efficiency of over 22%. Sn-based perovskite solar cells have also attracted attention as a non-toxic alternative to Pb-based PSCs.
Dr. Ashraful Islam started his career with the Atomic Energy Commission in Bangladesh. He completed his PhD at the University of Osaka. After completing his PhD, he worked at various Japanese research institutes, including the University of Tsukuba as a professor and at Sharp Corporation as a senior researcher. He is a member of various renowned scientific organizations.
His aim at NIMS is to construct the next generation of low-cost solar cells, including dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells. Dr. Ashraful has published about 215 peer-reviewed papers with a total citation of approximately 16,000 and possesses many patents. Presently, he is the Chief Researcher at NIMS, leading the Photovoltaic Materials Group.