Doctoral candidate Sara Pouladi won the Best Poster Award for her work on thin film solar cells at the 44th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Washington D.C.

Titled “Flexible GaAs single-junction solar cells based on single-crystal-like thin-film materials directly grown on metal tapes," the work offers that III-V compound semiconductor materials are the top candidates for thin-film photovoltaics.

Tired of lugging that heavy laptop in your padded backpack? Here’s an idea: When you’re finished using your laptop, just roll it up, fold it, stick it in your back pocket and bolt. That’s the incredible future being created in a UH Cullen College of Engineering laboratory – a flexible, thin-film transistor (TFT) that may one day make your current laptop a dinosaur.

Silicon, despite inefficiencies, has been an effective electrical energy conversion and control material for hybrid-electric vehicles and numerous other power electronics. However, the semiconductor is reaching its physical limits in many important applications, such as next-generation electric vehicles and smart grid systems.