Dr Fiacre Rougieux

Bio: Fiacre Rougieux has a PhD from the Australian National University in the field of photovoltaics and semiconductor materials. Between 2012 and 2015, he was an ARENA Post-doctoral Fellow at the ANU where he developed high-efficiency and low-cost solar cell concepts. One of the outcomes of his research was three consecutive world efficiency records for solar cells made with Updgraded Metallurgical Grade silicon. This technology now widely is used in the industry blended with other materials. Between 2016 and 2018, he was an ARC DECRA fellow at the ANU where he explored the physics of defects in high efficiency devices and successfully developed a wide range of processes to remove defects in solar cells and improve their efficiency. Typical process: oxygen dissolution, tabula rasa, vacancy-defect dissociation. Example of outcomes: 20% increase in relative efficiency. Fiacre is currently a Senior Lecturer at UNSW. He has published and co-authored more than 70 papers. His research interests include solar grade silicon, growth-related defects and advanced solar cells processes. 

Our goal is to engineer the materials and devices required to accelerate our transition to a decarbonised and circular economy. Our work lies at the intersection of materials science, nanotechnology, solid-state chemistry, solar cells and semiconductor physics. As a result of intensified research activities, our international research network has grown significantly and we collaborate with many the leading photovoltaics laboratories across the globe, including student research exchanges. We also welcome international and domestic visitors in our group. Some of our recent research successes include the development of advanced characterisation techniques to measure dilute defects in ultra-high efficiency solar cells, the successful development of novel defect imaging techniques for defects in semiconductors, the creation of advanced defect analysis capability (Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy) at UNSW and the development of new recombination analysis theoretical framework and advanced measurement methods to link strain and recombination activity in photovoltaic materials.

We are currently looking for students enthusiastic about producing technologies to mitigate the negative impacts of defects on high-efficiency solar cells.  The student would contribute to the development of novel solar cell processes to enable defect-free silicon and the development of new characterization techniques to image defects in silicon wafers allowing high efficiency solar cells to overcome their current limits and reach their true potential.

For a detailed description of all our topics please email us directly.

We also welcome students to suggest their own research project.

Course:

Solar Cells SOLA3507

Applied PV SOLA2540