Dr Gianfranco Claudio obtained a First Class Degree in Physics from the University of Bari (Italy) in 1998 before joining the University of Surrey in 2000 where he obtained a PhD in Electronic Engineering in 2004. He is a Member of the Institute of Physics since 2004 and Chartered Physicist since 2009.

He then accepted a Research Associate position at CREST within the Electronic Electrical and System Engineering School at Loughborough University working on developing high efficient silicon solar cells investigating the antireflective properties of thin film dielectric grown by reactive sputtering. He also actively participated at the construction of the new PV laboratory at Holywell Park, Loughborough.

In 2009, Dr Claudio accepted a Lecturer position in Photovoltaics at Electronic Electrical and System Engineering School at Loughborough University. In 2010 he won a Technology Strategy Board (TSB) grant on epitaxial silicon solar cells in collaboration with Echerkon Ltd. He has also won a Welsh Assembly Grant on characterisation of silicon solar cells in collaboration with Purewafer.

He is a co-PI on a current TSB project on Interconnect of thin film CdTe cells in collaboration with M-solv.

He has several years of experience in electrical and optical characterisation of solar cells such as: Capacitance-Voltage (C-V), Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), Photoconductance Decay (PCD), Hall Measurements, External Quantum Efficiency (EQE), Photoluminescence (PL), Coherence Correlation Interferometry (CCI).

Gianfranco Claudio is a Lecturer in Photovoltaics in Electronic and Electrical Engineering. His research focus is on sputtering and electrodeposition of thin film photovoltaics in particular of CdTe.

Topics of research: sputtering and electrodeposition of CdTe/CIGS solar cells process optimisation, laser process for ultra thin crystalline silicon solar cells, interconnect manufacturing process for thin film solar cells.

He has several years of experience in electrical and optical characterisation of solar cells such as: Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), Photoconductance Decay (PCD), Hall Measurements, External Quantum Efficiency (EQE), Capacitance-Voltage (C-V), Photoluminescence (PL), Scanning White Light Interferometry (CCI).

ELD533/ELP033/ELP6633 Advanced PV and PV Manufactuing for Solar I REST MSc (Module Director).

ELD538/ELP038/ELP638 Energy Storage (Module director)

ELD040 Advanced Photovoltaics

ELA001 Transient Circuit, Bipolar Transistor

ELB013 Engineering Project Management

Supervising 2PhD Students

Selected Publications

F.Lisco, A.Abbas, B. Maniscalco, P.M. Kaminski, M. Losurdo, K. Bass, G.Claudioand J.M. Walls (2013), Pinhole free thin film CdS deposited by chemical bath using a substrate reactive plasma treatment, accepted for publication in Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy

Kaminski, PM, Bass, K, Claudio, G (2011) High bandgap dielectrics for antireflective coating in silicon solar cells by reactive ion sputtering, Physica Status Solidi (C) Current Topics in Solid State Physics, 8(4), pp.1311-1314, ISSN: 1862-6351.

Kaminski, PM, Abbas, A, Bass, K, Claudio, G (2011) Passivation of silicon wafers by Silicon Carbide (SiC x) thin film grown by sputtering, Energy Procedia, 10, pp.71-75, ISSN: 1876-6102.

Claudio, G, Kaminski, P, Bass, K (2009) Optical Characterisation of Aluminium Nitride as Antireflective Coating by a New Remote Plasma Deposition System,Physical Status Solidi C, 6(12), pp.2665-2667, DOI: 10.1002/pssc.200982574.