Award Zeno Karl Schindler/EPFL 2012 - Corsin Battaglia

"Dr. Battaglia receives the ZKS award for his innovative experimental contributions and his remarkable publications in the field of light management for the realisation of thin film solar cells with higher performances."

Abstract: The last decade has seen photovoltaics emerging as a promising key technology for a sustainable energy future. To meet the economic requirements for a global terawatt-scale deployment of photovoltaics, further efficiency improvements and cost reductions are mandatory. Dr. Battaglia’s research at EPFL has been focused on the development and integration of advanced light trapping schemes which contribute to both objectives simultaneously. In particular, Dr. Battaglia validated nanoimprinting as a versatile tool for the integration of novel photonic nanostructures into high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells. This work served as the basis for an innovative multi-scale electrode architecture which has enabled a thin-film silicon tandem solar cell whose efficiency closely rivals with world’s highest cell efficiency for this industrial technology. In addition, Dr. Battaglia invented a nanomoulding method enabling precise, large-area nanoscale patterning of functional zinc oxide films at low cost and validated its application for the fabrication of transparent electrodes for thin-film silicon solar cells. Combining these experimental techniques with theory, Dr. Battaglia’s work has furthermore contributed to improve our understanding of the fundamental limits of nanophotonic light trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells.