Steve Harvey has been a staff scientist at NREL since 2013. His work focuses on using time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) to aid NREL development of more efficient and reliable photovoltaic (PV) modules, as well as furthering the development of energy storage materials. His background is in materials science and transport fundamentals in solid state oxide materials focusing on defect chemistry and diffusion, as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In recent years, he has focused on the development of the TOF-SIMS technique to provide unique insight into the halide perovskite field, as well as using TOF-SIMS to investigate PV failure mechanisms. 

Education

Ph.D., Materials Science, Northwestern University

M.S., Ceramic Engineering, Alfred University

B.S., Ceramic Engineering, Alfred University 

Professional Experience

Staff Scientist, NREL (2013–current)

Alexander Von Humboldt Research Fellow, RWTH Aachen University (2009–2013) 

Featured Work

Investigating the Effects of Chemical Gradients on Performance and Reliability within Perovskite Solar Cells with TOF‐SIMS, Advanced Energy Materials (2020)

Mitigating Measurement Artifacts in TOF-SIMS Analysis of Perovskite Solar Cells, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (2019)

Investigating PID Shunting in Polycrystalline Silicon Modules via Multiscale, Multitechnique Characterization, Progress in Photovoltaics (2018)

Awards and Honors

2020 NREL Highest Impact Publication Award, Tailored Interfaces of Unencapsulated Perovskite Solar Cells for >1,000 Hour Operational Stability, Nature Energy (2018)