Dr Michelle Vaqueiro Contreras

Dr. Vaqueiro Contreras currently holds an ACAP Postdoctoral fellowship at UNSW awarded in 2020 focusing on the applications of graphene oxide multilayer films for solar cells. She completed a PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2018 at the University of Manchester and working at the National Graphene Institute, focusing on the identification of light element impurities responsible for high minority carrier recombination in silicon and the application of graphene oxide as new passivation material. Her findings on the recombination mechanisms relating C-O-H interactions in silicon have proven to be of high impact to the solar cell industry as hydrogen introduction in silicon is mostly recognized as advantageous. She has extensive experience in a variety of electrical characterisation of defects in silicon, surface characterisation, micro-fabrication and dielectric deposition techniques. She is interested in novel passivation materials and processes compatible with large-scale manufacture for high-efficiency solar cells, as well as in the identification and mitigation of defects in silicon.