Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy has transitioned from a niche technology to a pillar of global energy generation. This seminar provides an overview of silicon-based PV technology, tracing its historical cost trajectories and assessing the current industrial dominance of commercial silicon solar cell device architectures that now feature passivating contacts. From this context we will derive the fundamental efficiency limits of this technology, and explore the frontier of next-generation photovoltaics: perovskite-based multijunction solar cells. We will discuss the fundamental semiconductor physics driving tandem architectures, examine recent results from the KPV lab, and confront the critical stability and scalability bottlenecks currently separating lab-scale milestones from commercial reality.

Biography

Dr. Thomas Allen is a Research Scientist in the KAUST Photovoltaics Laboratory (KPV Lab), led by Prof. Stefaan De Wolf at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). He received his Ph.D. from the Australian National University (ANU) in 2017, specializing in silicon solar cell contact formation and surface passivation. His current research drives the development and characterization of high-efficiency silicon heterojunction and perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells. Reflecting his research impact, Dr. Allen was recognized on the Clarivate list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2025.