Michael Walls is Professor of Photovoltaics for Power Systems in the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). He is responsible for photovoltaics device research within CREST and his research focus is in thin film photovoltaics.
Michael started his career at Loughborough University in the Physics Department where he specialized in surface and thin films research and set up a surface analysis facility which is now housed in the Department of Materials. He then moved into industry in Technical Director/Managing Director roles within VG Instruments plc (now Thermo Fisher Scientific). He then went on to found a series of high technology start up companies involved in thin film optical coating, thermal management systems and atom probe instrumentation. He remains a Director of two of these companies.
He is a member of the Ion and Plasma Surface Interactions (IPSI) Group committee of the Institute of Physics and is organizer of “Plasmas, Surfaces and Thin Films” and “Thin Film Photovoltaics” meetings both of which have become annual events. He is a member of the American Vacuum Society and the Materials Research Society. He has been responsible for more than 100 publications including 3 books and 14 patents
Expertise
Advanced glazing systems
thermal insulation and photovoltaic facades
Cold atmospheric plasmas physics and engineering
Ion and plasma sources
Methods of surface and thin film analysis
Plasma surface modification
Renewable Energy Systems
Semi-transparent bifacial thin film photovoltaics for double glazed windows
Surface analysis techniques for thin film characterization
Thin film photovoltaics
Transparent conducting oxides
Keywords
modelling
Thin Film Photovoltaics
thin film optics
Michael Walls obtained his BSc (1970) and PhD (1973) in Physics at the University of Aston. His PhD studies were carried out jointly with the Department of Materials at Birmingham University where he was later awarded a research fellowship. In 1974 he became a Lecturer in Physics at Loughborough and in 1981 he became Senior Lecturer. In 1982 he was awarded a one year science fellowship by the Nuffield Foundation.
In 1984 he joined VG Instruments plc (now Thermo Fisher Scientific) in Technical Director/Managing Director roles. In 1989 he was appointed Visiting Professor in Physics at Loughborough.
In1990, he was a founder of Applied Vision Ltd a company specializing in using magnetron sputtering to produce anti-reflection coatings. The company was awarded the Queen’s Award for Technological achievement in 1996. It was acquired by BOC plc in 2001. He has since helped to found a succession of start up technology companies and remains a Director of two of them.
He rejoined Loughborough as Professor of Photovoltaics for Power Systems in 2009
Current research topics include:
- Low cost integrated PV in double glazed windows using CdTe bifacial solar cells
- Reclaimed Silicon wafers for Photovoltaics
- Epitaxial silicon solar cells by new generation deposition equipment: EPISODE
- Interconnect manufacturing processes for thin film solar cells
- Dielectric thin film encapsulation of solar cells.
- Plasmonic-advanced next-generation ultra-thin crystalline silicon solar cells
- Multiscale modelling of deposition of transmitting conducting oxide (TCO) thin films
View all Professor Walls’s publications in the central publications database
Selected Publications
"High Throughput Optical Coating" Photonics Spectra 42 (2008) 56 J M Walls and D R Gibson
‘Nanometrology project produces technology that advances super-smooth optical thin films’ Europhotonics 12 (2007) 28 A G Spencer, D R Gibson and J M Walls
‘Reactive sputtering provides powerful new technology for high quality optical coatings’ Europhotonics 9 (2004) 32 D R Gibson and J M Walls
'The development of a general three-dimensional surface under ion bombardment' Philosophical Magazine 42 (1980) 235 R. Smith and J.M. Walls
“Surface Science Techniques” (Pergamon Press) 1994, 188pp J.M. Walls and R. Smith
“Methods of Surface Analysis” (Cambridge University Press) 1989, 342pp J.M. Walls
