Dr Melissa McCarthy

I am a postdoctoral researcher working on metal halide perovskite solar cells and tandem devices in Professor Henry Snaith’s group.

My research is directed towards the optimisation and implementation of vacuum deposited recombination layers, as well as buffer and transport layers for use in all-perovskite and perovskite/silicon tandem devices. My areas of expertise are atomic layer deposition (ALD), sputter deposition, and evaporation of thin films. These vacuum processes advance the viability of commercialisation within the field. My work also focuses on the solution processing of wide band gap and medium band gap perovskite solar cells. I use a variety of characterisation and spectroscopic tools (ellipsometry, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, absolute photoluminescence spectroscopy) to optimise thin films and understand the interactions between device layers.

My work is a component of the EPSRC Prosperity Partnership All-Perovskite Multi-Junction Solar Cells project. The ambition of the project is to go beyond the state-of-the-art and deliver over 37% efficient triple-junction perovskite solar cells. To facilitate collaboration between the University of Oxford and Oxford PV, I act as the technical project manager. This bridging position aids the project to better visualise bottlenecks and define priority areas to achieve defined milestones.