Surrey NanoSystems has won an order to supply Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) with a sputtering tool to support fundamental research into the fabrication of hybrid solar cells.

By building arrays of organic solar cells on a low-resistance nanowire interconnection substrate, LMU hopes to dramatically increase the efficiency of the energy conversion process.

"Structural precision is a key element of making efficient, low-loss hybrid solar cells, and LMU's research will focus heavily on this aspect," says Professor Lukas Schmidt-Mende of the LMU Department of Physics and Centre for NanoScience.

The tool will be used to develop production techniques that utilise precisely ordered nanowire structures as templates for organic material.

The equipment is a configuration of Surrey NanoSystems' Gamma tool, an advanced PVD (plasma vapour deposition) sputtering system. The tool's high vacuum capability of 5 x 10-9 Torr provides an exceptionally pure environment to aid uniform film deposition.

"The high quality of film deposition that the Gamma tool can achieve gives us a very versatile platform to support our studies," said Schmidt-Mende.

Some further special facilities for the tool have also been specified by LMU to help produce uniform aluminium films, which will then be processed to form highly ordered porous alumina membranes on various substrates — one of the fabrication approaches under research.

Further support for up to four sputtering target materials will also provide the research team with the flexibility to deposit barrier layers and other inter-layer films that might be required to ensure good adherence of the solar cell's active structures.

Surrey NanoSystems is based at the Euro Business Park in Newhaven.