Post-Doctoral Opening in Mechanics of bonding in Solar Cells (KAUST)

The Division of Physical Sciences and Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, invites applications for Postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering at the Mechanics of Composites for Energy and Mobility Lab.

(MCEM, https://composites.kaust.edu.sa).

Field of study

A Postdoctoral opening is available in the area of bonding engineering for solar cells.

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have demonstrated an unprecedented surge in power conversion efficiency

(PCE) in the last decade, having quickly become a leading thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technology.

However, for commercialization, these devices ultimately need to be integrated into PV modules, which poses

significant technological challenges that we confront in this project. Such structures are especially prone to

delamination due to on-site thermal stresses or process-induced shrinkages.

The main goal of this project is to develop innovative mechanical testing and modeling in order to

improve the understanding of the delamination mechanism in tandem solar cells. Main challenges are the

development of representative mechanical tests, at the micro scale, and the translation of mechanical

conclusions into design principles.