Solasta is a venture - funded company established to commercialize new advances in nanostructured solar cells. Different than conventional solar cells, which are built upon planar configurations, the Solasta configuration starts with a substrate of nanostructured materials and maintains this three dimensional structure through subsequent thin film depositions. This configuration results in increased cell efficiency by separating the photon path for light absorption and the electronic path for carrier extraction. The Solasta solar cell configuration is protected by numerous patents and trade secrets.

Solasta based in Newton, Massachusetts was founded in 2006 and has received Series A funding from Kleiner Perkins, Caufield and Byers. The company has also received two DOE/NREL grants to advance the product development.

Founders

Michael J. Naughton, Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Naughton is a co-founder of Solasta and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Physics at Boston College, where he also previously served as Associate Vice President for Research. He holds a B.S. degree in Physics from St. John Fisher College and a Ph.D. in Physics from Boston University. He was previously a faculty member in the Physics department at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an NSF Young Investigator Awardee, and a former member of the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics (DCMP). Dr. Naughton’s research career has concentrated on experimental condensed matter & materials physics and integrated science, with particular interests in low dimensional electron physics and the manipulation of light on the nanoscale.

Zhifeng Ren, PhD

Dr. Ren is a co-founder of Solasta and professor in the Physics Department at Boston College. Dr. Ren received his PhD in Condensed Matter Physics in 1990 from the Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is the recipient of the Outstanding Researcher Award of Boston College in 2006 as well as the 2008 R&D 100 Award by R&D Magazine. Dr. Ren’s current focus is in solar energy conversion into electricity by either high efficient photovoltaic or thermoelectric materials, nanomaterials synthesis, characterization, and applications including carbon nanotubes and semiconducting nanowires of ZnO, Si, Ge, etc., nanocrystals of Si, Ge, PbTe, PbSe, BiTe, Sb2Te, BiSe, etc. He has published over 200 peer reviewed papers and has 26 patents. Dr. Ren is also the co-founder of NanoLabs Inc. and GMZ Energy, Inc.

Krzysztof Kempa, PhD

Dr. Kempa is a co-founder of Solasta and a Professor of Physics at Boston College, where he teaches various graduate and undergraduate level courses. Dr. Kempa has a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wroclaw in Poland. He has held visiting research appointments at various universities and institutes, including UCSB, Imperial College in London, Technical University in Vienna, Center for Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) in Bonn, etc. His research is focused on nanoscience, the discipline that can lead through nanotechnology to numerous applications. He is studying the nanosystems by utilizing various theoretical schemes, including computer simulations and modeling. Author of over 100 papers, and over 40 invited talks at various institutions and conferences. His recent co-discovery of the antenna effect in carbon nanotubes and his role in the invention of the nanocoax, can lead to a novel class of highly efficient solar cells.