Charles Buhler

Charles Buhler is a fourth year physics major at UC Santa Barbara funded through the Center for Energy Efficient Materials this summer. For the past year, he has been working on developing a four-junction solar cell under Chieh-Ting Lin in John Bowers Optoelectronics Group. More specifically, Buhler has worked to develop the middle antireflective coating to be deposited between the second and third junctions of the cell. He has also worked with measurement and characterization of thermoelectric energy generating devices and has written broader qualitative reports with the Institute for Energy Efficiency. Buhler received additional funding to continue his research through the Materials Research Laboratory this fall. After completing his physics degree, Buhler plans to attend graduate school in electrical engineering and pursue his research interests of energy generating device physics. He is particularly interested in device commercialization and energy ventures.