Keith Barnham is Emeritus Professor of Physics, and Distinguished Research Fellow at Imperial College London. He started his research career in experimental high energy nuclear physics at the University of Birmingham and worked in research laboratories at CERN in Geneva and at the University of California, Berkeley. Mid-career he switched to researching solar energy. His Quantum Photovoltaic (QPV) group at Imperial developed the quantum well technology that enables the highest efficiency solar cells to be optimized for different types of sunlight.
In 2007 he co-founded QuantaSol with Massimo Mazzer and John Roberts to manufacture solar cell using quantum well technology. The company briefly held a world record for the highest efficiency single junction solar cell in concentrated sunlight. QuantaSol manufactured triple-junction cells with quantum wells in the middle sub-cell. The cell achieved 40% efficiency and QuantaSol received a substantial order from the leading American concentrator company.
In 2011, with the cost of solar panels having fallen by a factor of four in just over two years, QuantaSol’s investors sold QuantaSol to the American company JDSU. Four QuantaSol employees joined JDSU and showed them how quantum wells in the top cell could enhance the triple-junction cell to 42.5% efficiency. That is about three times the efficiency of typical roof top panels and at the time was a record for commercially produced solar cells. Keith has published over two hundred papers in solar energy and co-invented five patents.