Ian Sellers

To enable the large-scale implementation of solar cells for utility scale energy applications improvements in power conversion efficiency and system cost reductions must be achieved. To circumvent the fundamental limitations of single energy gap solar cells, devices based on third generation (3G) processes have been proposed. In this presentation I will introduce such concepts and describe work we are currently undertaking at the University of Oklahoma. Our objective is developing hot carrier solar cells based on III-V heterostructures or quantum wells (type-II), which utilizes architectures developed via a fundamental understanding of the carrier dynamics, electron-phonon processes, and more specifically the role of intervalley scattering in these systems. I will also briefly discuss our recent work investigating the carrier dynamics in Ruddleson-Popper 2D perovskite systems, and how our understanding of the more conventional III-V systems has enabled a better understanding of the interesting hot carrier and carrier-phonon dynamics in perovskite systems.

Ian Sellers received his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at the University of Liverpool in 1999, a master degree from the Department of Physics at Imperial College London in 2001, and a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield in 2004. Between 2004-2006 Sellers was a Marie Curie Fellow at CRHEA-CNRS in Valbonne, France. A position that was followed by a three-year postdoctoral position in the group of Professor Bruce D. McCombe at the University at Buffalo SUNY. Following his position at SUNY Buffalo, Sellers joined the Solar Energy and Technology Group as a senior research scientist at Sharp Laboratories of Europe in Oxford, UK where he was also a Visiting Academic Fellow in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. After spending three years in Industry, he returned to the academic environment taking a position at the University of Oklahoma in 2011. In addition to being a tenured professor in physics and engineering physics, Sellers is the associate director of the Oklahoma Photovoltaics Research Institute. Sellers’ group at OU is focused on the development and investigation of novel quantum-engineered materials and devices for next generation photovoltaics. Specific programs involve hot carrier dynamics in III-V and perovskite systems, defect formation and stability of thin-film CIGS and perovskites solar cells, as well as, their suitability for deep space power applications.