Kevin L. Schulte is a scientist in the High Efficiency Crystalline PV group in the Materials Applications & Performance center at NLR.

He received BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Wisconsin, he designed and constructed a hydride vapor phase epitaxial (HVPE) growth reactor, with which he studied epitaxial growth fundamentals and defect incorporation mechanisms of III-V semiconductors.

At NLR he works to raise the efficiency and reduce the cost of III-V single and multijunction solar cells. He helped pioneer the high-throughput (>300 µm/hour) growth of III-V single-junction and tandem photovoltaic devices by dynamic-HVPE (D-HVPE), a technique with the potential to significantly reduce III-V device costs. He also investigates multijunction concentrator solar cells grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, focusing on the interplay between microstructure and performance of lattice mismatched graded buffers and devices. 

Fundamentals of III-V epitaxial growth

Epitaxial reactor and reaction modeling and reactor design

High-throughput, high-efficiency III-V photovoltaic devices grown by D-HVPE

High-efficiency multijunction concentrator photovoltaics

Mismatched epitaxial growth and devices

Low-cost seeds for III-V epitaxy