Faculty

Allen Barnett is the Executive Director of the High Efficiency Solar Power Program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  He is also a Senior Policy Fellow in the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy.  His engineering research is focused on developing very high performance, next generation photovoltaic solar cells and on the interdisciplinary basic research needs to further advance solar power. As the Program Manager and Principal Investigator for the $53 million DARPA Very High Efficiency Solar Cell program he is leading the development of a 50% efficient solar cell for portable applications. Policy work is focused on further developing the value propositions for the solar electric power industry. Key projects included providing leadership for the United State's Solar Power Industry Roadmap - a national, domestic solar power plan.

Stephen Bremner’s work focuses on the development of advanced concept high efficiency photovoltaic devices. These advanced concepts promise energy conversion efficiencies greatly in excess of those available today, promising much lower costs due the lower number of solar cells required. His work spans looking at the theoretical basis of such advanced concepts, through to the experimental and ultimately industrial realization of devices based on these advanced concepts. A large part of his work is looking at the growth of semiconductor nanostructures, such as quantum wells and quantum dots, through Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). The properties of the samples grown are studied through such techniques as photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction. The research undertaken combines the very latest in thinking on high efficiency photovoltaics and breakthroughs in materials fabrication and measurement.