Marcel Pagels was born in Berlin in 1980, May 27th.
He studied physics at the Technische Universität Berlin and graduated in 2007. In his diploma thesis he dealt with 3D micro-XRF for element-specific, three-dimensional resolved investigations on biological specimens. During his study he worked in the group "Protein Structure Research" in the Charité Berlin. In this group the molecular structures of proteins are resolved by X-ray diffraction. After his study Marcel Pagels worked at the Max-Born-Institut Berlin as scientist on a study on the installation of an application laboratory in the field of X-ray technologies. At the Max-Born-Institut he also dealt with laser-plasma induced X-ray sources and X-ray microscopy. For his PhD he returns to the TU Berlin in January 2009 where he is working on his thesis in close collaboration with non-university institutes as scholarship holder of the Reiner Lemoine Stiftung.
"Characterization and process control of thin film solar cells with selected methods of X-ray analysis"
The development of new, more effective thin film solar cells is involving materials of increasing complexity. Structure and properties of the cells usually vary on the nanometer scale and often aren't properly understood. That is why there is an increasing demand for efficient analytical methods in the field of solar cell research which lead to a better understanding of the function, the growth and the further processing of such cells.
Furthermore, the scaling from the laboratory production to a large-scale fabrication depends on sensitive parameters which have to be monitored during production on a regular base. Else it can't be guarantied that the industrially produced solar cells have the same properties like the laboratory samples.
In the thesis the suitability of different X-ray methods to solve several existing questions shall be investigated. Modern X-ray methods lead to a number of investigation possibilities, beginning with the determination of the elemental composition of a specimen, the analysis of information on chemical binding to structural investigations on the nanometer scale. Key benefits of X-rays lie in mostly non-destructive measurements, a high detection sensitivity and a low effort on preparation.
The aim is to gain a deeper insight into the properties of the novel solar cells and to develop basic approaches for process control systems in the production.
The thesis is located at the group "Analytical X-ray Physics" of Prof. Dr. Birgit Kanngießer at the Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik of the TU Berlin. As part of the thesis a new experimental chamber will be built up which allows for investigations of solar cells with interconnected methods using the latest X-ray sources and spectrometers.