Stefaan De Wolf

Principal Investigator

Professor of Material Science and Engineering

Current

Location:

Al Kindi B5/L3- 3237 (Seaside)

Social Profile:

Biography

Stefaan De Wolf received his Ph.D. degree in 2005 from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, during which time he was also affiliated with IMEC in Belgium, working on crystalline silicon solar cells. From 2005 to 2008, he was with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, investigating silicon heterojunction structures and devices. In 2008, he joined the Photovoltaics and Thin‐Film Electronics Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Neuchatel, Switzerland, as a team leader for its activities on high‐efficiency silicon solar cells. Since September 2016, he has been an associate professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Research Interests

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Stefaan De Wolf's expertise lies in the science and technology of photovoltaics for terrestrial applications. His research focuses on the fabrication of high-efficiency silicon-based solar cells, with specific attention to the fundamental understanding of interface structures and electrical contact formation, relevant to solar cells and electronic devices.
He is also interested in new device architectures and applications, such as back-contacted solar cells and silicon-based multi-junction solar cells, aimed at the improved utilization of the full solar spectrum for electricity generation. A prime example of these devices are perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells.

Selected Publications

  • Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics: Status and Perspectives
    C. Battaglia, A. Cuevas, and S. De Wolf
    Energy Environ. Sci. 9, 1552, (2016)
  • Efficient silicon solar cells with dopant-free asymmetric heterocontacts
    J. Bullock, M. Hettick, J. Geissbuehler, A.J. Ong, T. Allen, C. Sutter-Fella, T. Chen, H. ...
    Nature Energy 1, 15031, (2016)
  • Efficient Monolithic Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cell with Cell Area > 1 cm2
    J. Werner, C.H. Weng, A. Walter, L. Fesquet, J.P. Seif, S. De Wolf, B. Niesen, and C. Ball...
    J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 7, 161, (2016)
  • Organometallic halide perovskites: sharp absorption edge and implications for photovoltaic applications
    S. De Wolf, J. Holovsky, S.-J. Moon, P. Löper, B. Niesen, M. Ledinsky, F.-J. Haug, J.-H Yu...
    J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 1035, (2014)
  • Nature of doped a-Si:H/c-Si:H interface recombination
    S. De Wolf and M. Kondo
    J. Appl. Phys. 105, 103707, (2009)

Education

  • ​PhD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 2005
  • MSc, Ghent University, Belgium, 1997

KAUST Affiliations

  • ​KAUST Solar Ce​nter (KSC)
  • Division of Physical Science and Engineering (PSE)​

Research Interests Keywords

Solar Energy Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Perovskite Solar Cells Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells