The Yurii Simonov Memorial Prize winner 2018

The Yurii Simonov Memorial Prize for 2017 was awarded dr. Maxim Guc Diana Chisca for its work is devoted to the study and technological development of multicomponent chalcogenide semiconductors for advanced photovoltaic devices as those based in Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ kesterite compounds. These technologies have a strong interest because of their potential for the development of high efficiency solar cell devices with low fabrication costs. In contrast with other chalcogenide photovoltaic technologies that are at a much more mature technological state as those based in CIGS (Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂) kesterites are only formed by earth abundant elements, which make them specially well suited for the sustainable industrial scale up of their production to mass production levels. In this field, Dr Guc has made several relevant contributions allowing a significant advance in the knowledge of fundamental properties of these semiconductors, providing with clear experimental evidences allowing the identification of their main crystalline structure with the kesterite structure from the deep analysis of their vibrational properties. This has also been complemented with a detailed analysis of their transport properties. Knowledge of these fundamental properties is strongly relevant for the technological development of suitable processes for the synthesis of the absorbers in kesterite based devices.