Sunthings

the journey

2011-12-04T16:25:00.001+01:00

I received a bit of encouragement to start blogging again (thanks, Steve). While one post doesn't mean I'm back, it's, well, one post. As in the past, my thoughts about writing go to the most banal events of my life with a smattering of photovoltaics thrown in. Central to my way of life remains the bicycle. This photo is from my commute, here coming home from work in the evening. I have a 200m

Blogging vs facebook

2011-04-30T11:16:00.002+02:00

I never used to use facebook but use it more now - at the expense of starting to blog again. There are a couple of things that make facebook preferable. I find it more interactive, whereas blogging was something I viewed as writing for writing's sake. Right now it's the interaction I prefer. I also like being constrained by the length of facebook status updates - it prevents the sort of rambling

The year gone by

2010-10-13T22:28:00.002+02:00

Yep, a whole year and then some since my last post. In the year and a half since leaving Sweden I've move my entire household three times and have lived in 9 different places for stays ranging from 2 weeks to 2 months. I now consider myself to be fairly settled, having lived in my *permanent* home for 4 months already. I'm actually quite pleased with my new digs, an appartment outside of town (

Zurich...

2009-08-18T12:13:00.002+02:00

...it is after all! 2 weeks to go before I move, again. The big world of solar cell production in Berlin proved to be a bit too distant from my sheltered research life to date. My whimsical and impulsive approach to experiments had been replaced with goal-driven planning and motivation. I learned how to write experiments in the smallest details and analyse and report the results without ever

Still Here!

2009-03-21T08:45:00.004+01:00

It looks like I'll be continuing my "leave of absence" from blogging for a while longer. But I can recount some highlights of my whereabouts this past month. After deciding to come to Berlin, there was, of course, lots that needed doing - moving, selling my house in Uppsala, finishing my job and, oh, attending all those good-bye events! Now in Berlin, I very much miss my Uppsala friends and

Berlin...

2009-02-04T18:40:00.002+01:00

...is my next destination. I'm packing up, selling the house (I hope) and will leave Uppsala in exactly 3 weeks. A new job awaits me at one of the thin film photovoltaic companies lucky enough to secure financing before the financial crisis hit. For almost a year I've been hoping to join a small start-up in Zurich with a long way to go before having anything ready for market. Not surprisingly,

Oz Weather is #1

2009-01-29T14:34:00.006+01:00

Graham Dawson has finally made it!! His iPhone weather app has become Australia's #1 seller. This is due in no small measure to great programming and attention to design and detail. But ultimately, Oz Weather's the best because of Graham's passion for weather which I can attest he's had at least since his teen years (I really suspect that his parents gave him a toy weather station for his third

"Sambo"

2009-01-24T17:43:00.004+01:00

I looked up the English translation of the word "sambo": co-habitee, co-habiter, person with whom one lives, partner, common-law spouse. Of these, "partner" is the only one that comes close to being usable in a social context. And yet, looking up definitions for the word "partner", I found the closest definition to be "husband or wife" and "spouse", words which indicate being married to the "

A new America?

2009-01-21T19:21:00.005+01:00

If ever there was a time I felt like walking around waving a little American flag, this would have been it. I didn't actually do this, but it's the thought that counts. While remaining skeptical about how much change is likely to occur under Obama, the fact that there is so much hope is undeniably, irresistably uplifting.Hope is good.Nevertheless, the number one reason that caused me to flee the

Ice music

2008-12-29T21:08:00.005+01:00

I forgot to mention today about hearing the ice sing while skating. Beautiful (and loud). Here's an analysis by an acoustical engineer, Gunnar Lundmark, relating tone frequency to ice thickness. I guessed - with my less than perfect ear - that today's tone was A4. According to wikipedia that's 440 Hz which would correspond to about 7.5 cm of ice. The ice was reported to be 9 cm which should have

We've got ice!!

2008-12-29T17:51:00.006+01:00

The clear, cold days started well before Christmas and the temperature has been sinking steadily: -10C today at midday. We (Alessandro, Ariana - a Czech friend - and I) went to a lake a 20 minute drive east of Uppsala where today's ice report indicated 9 cm thick ice. With the cold temps and no snow at all, the whole lake was skateable. The white stuff is ice crystals which didn't interfere with

Burnt goat

2008-12-27T13:28:00.003+01:00

Looks like they torched Gävle's goat last night. This is what it became about 12 hours after I took its picture for yesterday's blog post . The story's in the Local.

Gävle Julbock

2008-12-26T21:12:00.006+01:00

The large straw goat in the town of Gävle made the news on Christmas day. Not because something happened to it, but simply because it was still in place, untouched and unharmed. The 13 meter high Christmas symbol has been torched more often than not since it first made its appearance in Gävle in 1966. Various strategies to ensure that Gävle still would have its goat have been tried including

New blog

2008-12-23T16:37:00.004+01:00

I've finally decided to separate my CIGS ramblings from my personal ones even though the two often overlap. The plan is to move over all CIGS related stuff from this blog to the new one, Sunny Side Up - a CIGS adventure. Apparently my last post on quantum eficiency had a tad too much detail for some friends and family. This way I can feel free to talk about band gaps, Fermi levels and activation

The black hole in the milky way

2008-12-19T18:24:00.003+01:00

Zoom in to the center of the milky way in this film from ESO, the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. Got this from Lunken's blog.

How does a CIGS solar cell respond to sunlight?

2008-12-18T21:32:00.005+01:00

Well, hopefully the solar cell will act like a battery when the sun shines on it. But, of course, I want to go into a bit more detail than that. I've already written a fair number of posts regarding the making and workings of CIGS solar cells. You'll find them by clicking on the "CIGS" label at the bottom of this post. If you're new to the CIGS world, I suggest you start there first.By now, you

The dead can warm the living

2008-12-17T20:46:00.004+01:00

I can't help but admire Swedish creativity and the desire to particate in developing new energy sources. Or maybe it's just that Swedes abhor wastefulness. The cemetary administration in the Swedish town of Halmstad has plans to connect their crematorium's output - the heat, not the ashes - to the local district heating system: I saw this in the Local. While the burning fuel does produce CO2 and

Hello World

2008-12-16T16:26:00.007+01:00

You may have already noticed the appearence of two new names on the sidebar<-- And as one of the new contributors to this sporadically solar energy oriented blog, I thought I'd begin with a Hello and a brief introduction. Right now I am in the cleanroom, which is quite different from just any ordinary clean room. The cleanroom is a particle-controlled (and temperature/humidity they claim)

Lucia

2008-12-14T02:59:00.004+01:00

"Lucia" is part of the winter and advent celebrations in Sweden. Named after a third century Italian saint who was tortured and killed for her faith, the celebrations on Dec 13th are now a deeply traditional part of Swedish culture. I guess this would be Sweden's equivalent of a beauty pageant in which one girl (never a boy!) is selected to bear the candles in her hair. A must in all the schools.

I want to get thumbthing straight

2008-12-09T22:43:00.002+01:00

In a few hours I'll be off to the hospital for a "thumb straightening". With both hands on my lap, the right thumb points towards the ceiling, the joint at the base of the thumb looking like it's been popped out of place. The remedy is to shorten a ligament such that the thumb gets pulled to where it should be. Sounds like a dubious fix which doc #4 is proposing, but I don't see any good

Grocery shopping

2008-12-01T20:26:00.003+01:00

I decided to follow up on yesterday's investigation into eco/health logos by inspecting the groceries I bought today.Unpeeled potato chips with sunflower oil - no markEconomy corn flakes - no mark3 personal care products - none had marksGrana Padano Italian cheese - it had a stamp to show it was "genuine", but no eco-logoHmmm... I've emptied the first of my two bags and haven't found a single

Sweden: How food is marked

2008-11-30T15:00:00.005+01:00

While I believe the intentions are good, there are so many different ways in which foods are labelled that I thought I'd write this post for myself to see if I can figure it out a bit. Trying to sift through all the logos is confusing. I thought I'd list them here not in order of importance, but in order of my own familiarity and those that I look for when food shopping. The first three,

Clearing snow in Uppsala

2008-11-29T12:53:00.002+01:00

Last week's snow caused the usual snow clearing problems. It seems that the first heavy snow of the season comes as a surprise and is totally unexpected - this happens every year, of course. Mostly, however, I think Uppsala's snow clearing has been well planned and executed in the past, although I noted with consternation that the glacial roads in my neighboor were inadequately sanded this time

Bicycling on ice

2008-11-22T17:29:00.003+01:00

Since Tuesday we've had crisp cold winter days. At midday under a bright sun temps were -5, one of my favorite temperatures (the other one is 28). A sheet of ice covered sidewalks and roads. For 3 days I was too chicken to bicycle on the ice despite the studded snow tires and chose to go to work by bus, instead. But, finally, on Friday I got the bike out. Once I got out of the neighborhood - that

Sweden: world's best at recycling

2008-11-16T20:13:00.008+01:00

The logo to the left is placed on packaging to indicate that recycling costs have been prepaid. The symbol made its debut in Germany in the early 90's and is now used in 24 European countries (Do you know how many countries there are in Europe? No? Me either...)When I buy a washing machine, for example, the cost of disposing the packaging is included in the purchase price. To get rid of all the

The war in Iraq was all about oil...

2008-11-12T20:20:00.005+01:00

...according to Issam al-Chalabi who was Iraq's oil minister under Saddam Hussein from 1987 until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. While I might speculate on the kind of person who had such close ties to Saddam, I did find today's 2 hour seminar at the Ångström Lab (my place of employment) interesting. The talk was entitled "Past and Future Oil Production in Iraq" and was given to a full lecture

Winter tires

2008-11-11T20:34:00.004+01:00

Last week temps had sunk below freezing during the nights. There was frost on the grass and ice on the roads in the mornings. I decided to quit bicycling and start going to work by bus. But after a week of this I've become anxious to get back on my bicycle, so this past weekend I removed the summer tires and put on my studded winter ones.With darkness now arriving at 4pm, I've learned that the

Weather iPhone app

2008-11-10T18:58:00.004+01:00

My friend Graham Dawson from Australia has just launched his first iPhone app to provide detailed weather information in Australia. It's got a wonderful layout with timed radar screens and a locator - a fun thing to look at on a rainy day. It instantly became one of iPhone's best selling apps. His brother Ross Dawson wrote about it in his blog and has included a video demo, so I'll say no more

Unusually political thoughts

2008-11-06T23:26:00.003+01:00

It's hard not to get caught up in the euphoria of a victory for Obama. I had doubted that he could actually win in present day America. Still fresh for me is Bush's victory four years ago where his deceipt regarding the Twin Towers tragedy and the Irak war were already apparent at the time he was re-elected president. I became ashamed to be American and did everything to conceal this about myself

Florence

2008-11-05T22:44:00.005+01:00

I finally spent a few days with Alessandro in Florence. Schoolwork took up a fair amount of time even during my visit. He has two large stacks of schoolbooks for his 10 subjects: Latin, philosophy, history, art history, Italian, French, English, math, physics and biology. School at the Liceo (high school) "Leonardo da Vinci" is six days a week and Alessandro studies hard as he tries to learn in a

Climate tidbits

2008-10-27T17:03:00.007+01:00

I took at look at a one page report from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) about global climate indicators for September, 2008. Here are a few of their findings:-The combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for September 2008 tied with September 2001 as the ninth warmest since records began in 1880-Arctic sea ice coverage during September was at

Fun with setbacks

2008-10-25T15:53:00.014+02:00

Be forewarned - this is a boring post about my latest difficulties with CIGS.The CIGS evaporator is down again, this time for a corroded thermocouple (a temperature measuring device) that's needed to regulate the copper evaporation source. I haven't been permitted to keep a spare heater on hand due to the 13000 euro price tag, which means that a replacement can't be bought until failure occurs.

Politics - please skip this post

2008-10-16T22:47:00.008+02:00

It's not often I'll throw myself into the political world long enough to comment, but I've been entertained more than usual by the candidates for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. I think Pallin was a great choice for McCain - I was afraid he'd pick some exerienced politician with lots of savvy, but luckily he chose a bimbo. It means that the dark horse might even win this race even if he

Patent application

2008-10-13T12:31:00.007+02:00

It appears that an interest has been taken in a patent application that Uwe, Per-Oskar and I wrote up a couple of years ago about being able to streamline CIGS module fabrication using some new technology. But at the time neither the university nor Solibro, the solar spin-off that's now partially owned by Q-Cells in Germany, was interested in the costs involved in securing the patent. It was

Cambridge

2008-10-12T19:42:00.015+02:00

Thumbthings REALLY never end

2008-10-01T23:39:00.002+02:00

I had presumed that yesterday's visit to the doc would be my last - he would have told me what the status of my thumb and wrist was and essentially would have told me to live with whatever it was. But no. The first comment was about how the thumb is pointing int the wrong direction and that it would have to be operated if I'm ever to regain proper use of it. The second was that the bones in my

The making of a CIGS solar cell

2008-09-29T23:27:00.004+02:00

Finally the nitty gritty of how to make thin film CIGS solar cells. Let's see, where to start?The beginning comes to mind. "Substrate" in thin film lingo means the base upon which the solar cell will be formed. I'm using glass, ordinary window glass. Actually, I'm already cheating because the glass I use has a low iron content so it's not quite ordinary. Iron is a no-no for CIGS.Step 1: Wash the

Spikning och disputation

2008-09-27T20:23:00.009+02:00

Hardly anyone managed to get work done in our department yesterday. For one student, Olof Bengtsson, it was the day of his dissertation defense. His examiner - "opponent" as he is called - is an invited expert in the field. The defense involves short presentations by both the defendant and the opponent, after which the opponent and a judging board of three others may ask questions of the

John Ellis and the Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-19T23:49:00.003+02:00

One of the advantages of working in a place like Ångström is the access to the numerous interesting seminars given by distinguished scientists. Some are traditional annual events of which the most notable are the invited talks by the Nobel prize winners in physics. But throughout the year there will be invited speakers who are at the leading edge of scientific knowledge in their fields. Todays'

A CIGS day

2008-09-18T22:30:00.003+02:00

Last week I was finally able to make decent solar cells after some failed experiments and lots of equipment downtime. 16% conversion efficiency is what I expect out of M. Pilote, the name of my CIGS layer machine and that's what I got. Today I decided on a new experiment to see how much current the devices lose if I make the CIGS layer with only half the usual thickness - 1 micrometer instead of

Cool weather

2008-09-13T17:04:00.002+02:00

The temperature's dropped to 15C - inside the house, that is. Yesterday's nighttime low outside was 3C. Today I lit the living room fire for the first time after summer. I've already been using the small kitchen woodstove for the past several weeks. It certainly feels like it's an "in-between" season, part summer and part fall. I'm still picking apples from the tree and also the last blackberies

Dreams

2008-09-10T22:13:00.002+02:00

It's been a year now that I've been contemplating finding a new job somewhere and moving. Even though I nearly have a job offer in Zurich, I don't actually have it yet. I suspect it's been the reason for the dreams I've been having where the recurring theme is trains and planes and me running to catch them but typically ending up taking them in the wrong direction while forgetting in the meantime

Cambridge: planning

2008-09-09T20:38:00.003+02:00

Daniele will soon be off to Cambridge for his year as an exchange student from Uppsala University. After a busy summer involving lots of travel with the European Youth Parliament and a month of work at the Ångström lab, he's finally getting ready for his year abroad. Upon discovering the need to ship several boxes of books and other things, we've decided on an alternative method of transport for

Apple and wood, part 2

2008-09-01T09:39:00.010+02:00

The end of summer

2008-08-28T20:48:00.004+02:00

Every year in August there's another of those numerous Swedish traditional occurrences: the kräftskiva or crayfish party. Since I enjoy the crayfish, I've never missed eating them in August. But unlike the earlier years - I've been in Sweden since 1998 - I no longer attend parties in which large quantities of brännvin or aquavit are consumed and the requisite drinking songs are sung. Mostly now I

Badger in garden

2008-08-03T12:42:00.005+02:00

Camping at Fjällnora

2008-08-01T12:10:00.013+02:00

Nanosolar

2008-07-13T21:15:00.006+02:00

I'm not always aware of which topics are hot at any given time since I don't own a television (hmm - a future blog topic?) although I do get the daily Dagens Nyheter. But I've been curious about a company called Nanosolar for a while and I've decided get some perspective about their technology and claims in fabricating CIGS solar cells, the same kind that I research. The suggestion to do so at

The Carpool

2008-07-10T17:00:00.000+02:00

I just realized the significance of the empty halls in the lab. Four very particular co-workers are missing, at least for a while. Ventsi has gone back to Bulgaria for the summer, Tomas with wife Ariana to Prague, Per-Oskar is somewhere on vacation and poor Uwe's vacation request has been denied and he's been sent to Solibro in Thalheim, Germany where he's probably the most important person right

Building a solar charger

2008-07-05T15:11:00.022+02:00

It's July and this has special meaning for Swedes. They disappear. Where once the town was vibrant with the comings and goings of students, it's now quiet with a preponderance of people who are, well, over 40. Many shops have shut and signs of "sommarstängt" abound. At work, the doors that are normally open now require a passcard and code to enter. Many co-workers left on Friday with wishings of

Ocean waves and wind

2008-07-01T07:09:00.000+02:00

On Friday I attended a symposium on water, wind and wave energy at the Ångström Lab. I have to admit I rarely set foot outside the Ångström Solar Center where we research CIGS thin film solar cells - although I did put in an appearance a few weeks ago at a barbecue hosted by the Grätzel aka dye sensitized solar cell group.There are actually many interesting things happening in the Ångström

My solar installation

2008-06-28T08:15:00.001+02:00

With the introduction I've now given to some nitty gritty solar cell details, I expect you're breathlessly waiting to see my own personal solar installation at home. So I've included a photo of my somewhat funky looking house. In the pic you'll notice the more or less red clay tiles on the roof and the gray-white asbestos "eternit" tiles that make up the siding of the house. Not visible, of

Midsommar

2008-06-21T17:09:00.010+02:00

reindeer snackUwe, friend, colleague, fellow carpooler, chooser of my digital camera, source of my chili pepper plants, technical and practical wizard in everything electrical, digital and otherwise - and one of many whom I will miss..............................solstice, 1 am, the darkest hourplaying "kubb" by twilight

A CIGS solar cell

2008-06-17T06:13:00.006+02:00

First, to make one thing perfectly clear: if I had been talking about cigarettes, I wouldn't have capitalized all the letters in CIGS. Nope, CIGS is an acronym for the ingredients in Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium solar cells. Actually, CIGS solar cells are made up of a number of micrometer thin layers of which CIGS is just one of those layers. But it's the most important one - it's the

Deer in the daisies

2008-06-16T17:12:00.003+02:00

View from the kitchen window

Farewell

2008-06-15T11:17:00.004+02:00

Farewell 9th grade Torsviks skola and farewell Sweden!

Not so empty house

2008-06-14T15:14:00.008+02:00

With both boys gone the house has suddenly gotten empty and quiet and will remain so until July 15 when Alex will come and stay until school starts again in the fall. To counteract the emptiness I decided to offer to have the Ångström department's summer party at my house. They gladly accepted and yesterday I had 18 guests. The food was catered (smoked salmon, potato salad, caviar appetizers) and

Thumbthings never end

2008-06-11T19:25:00.005+02:00

Yesterday was my umpteenth visit to the hospital for more rehabilitation, splints and a review of last visit's x-rays. I have now met five doctors, three of whom have gravely informed me that my condition is very serious. You'd think that I'd been told that I had cancer or aids but what they're referring to is my thumb! While I admit my hand won't be doing any grasping in the near future, despite

Studenten

2008-06-11T18:30:00.006+02:00

I attended another extremely traditional event last week: the high school graduation of my friend Lotta's daughter Sofia. My camera's battery was dead, darn! The photo I have here gives the general idea - graduation caps and partying! Tradition involves a dinner with close friends and family that come from far and wide for the event while the student in question interrupts her partying to attend,

Solar cells, modules and panels

2008-06-04T18:24:00.003+02:00

I've written about a solar module, so this time I'll write about how solar cells are related to solar modules. First of all, what's the difference?The short answer is that a module is made up of cells that are electrically connected together. In an electrical circuit, each solar cell acts as a temporary battery that operates while the sun is shining on it. There are essentially two ways that

Daniele

2008-06-02T20:15:00.000+02:00

Although Daniele turned 21 last Friday, there was hardly any time to celebrate. He had a final in thermodynamics that day and a final in quantum mechanics today, leaving just enough time to blow out a few candles, wolf down some brownies and gratefully pocket his much sought-after present from me: money.I'm quite convinced Daniele will find some use for money in the near future. His summer

Dissertation party

2008-06-01T21:06:00.000+02:00

One of my colleagues (and former carpooler) successfully defended his thesis last week and an extremely traditional party was held at one of the student "nations" in town. It's a formal occasion with all the pomp of a wedding. The dress I wore is one designed and made by my sister, Jane. The dinner involved many speeches and the very Swedish drinking songs accompanied by lots of "snaps". I think

Back to work

2008-05-27T12:22:00.000+02:00

Alessandro didn't get quite what he expected at the haircutter's! But it is quite the fashion.I'm back at work 50% and started yesterday by working with my trainee to make CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) solar cells. There are many steps in this process, all involving coatings on glass of thicknesses on the order of around a micron (a thousandth of a millimeter)or less. Yesterday's step

Apple and wood

2008-05-23T13:14:00.000+02:00

Finally some sun after a week of wind and rain, with temps going below freezing at night. With 17C right now, it feels wonderfully warm. The apple tree has almost finished flowering, but I managed to catch the last blooms in this picture. 16 cubic meters of cut and split wood was delivered (in pouring rain) which, with the 4 cubic meters left over from last year, should be enough to heat my home

честит рожден ден!

2008-05-22T16:39:00.000+02:00

It was my Bulgarian friend Ventsi's birthday today. To celebrate, he invited some friends to lunch in town - four were Bulgarian, two were Czech and then there was me. The Czechs, Tomáš and Ariana, who are also good friends of mine, were shaking their heads at having to listen to a language as incomprehensible as Bulgarian. One of the other Bulgarians, Ilia, is the head of our department at the

Thumbthing

2008-05-21T18:18:00.000+02:00

Today I was at the hospital to get more x-rays of my thumb and wrist to hopefully discover why the healing process is so slow. There was a new doctor this time, the fifth doctor so far, but apparently it's normal practice at the hospital to get whichever doctor can fit in a bit of time in their overly tight schedules. The new x-rays showed that, in addition to a ligament having been separated

A solar module

2008-05-20T12:56:00.001+02:00

As long as this blog lacks a sense of direction, I expect that I'll be jumping from topic to topic at random with no organization. So today I thought I would show a small solar module that I made at the Ångström Laboratory, which is where I work. The module is a copper-indium-gallium-diselenide cadmium-free device, but I'm not going to explain that at this time. This particular module is about

Forget-me-not

2008-05-19T11:52:00.000+02:00

Why have I chosen to sign my posts as Forget-me-not? The simplest reason is that I typically choose some flower name for myself, and when prompted for a name, I went outside and saw the beautiful forget-me-nots in the garden where I just took this picture. Ultimately, of course, I associate myself in some way with the flower I choose. This association is quite straightforward - as I look ahead

day 2

2008-05-18T13:46:00.000+02:00

My blogging interest has survived into day 2. I have now started to wonder what the content of my blog eventually might be. Will I write about that truly fascinating subject, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide thin film solar cell research or the somewhat more mundane thoughts and events of my personal life in a diary to be read only by myself? Today, it is most definitely the latter. This blog

how to

2008-05-17T10:49:00.001+02:00

Ok, maybe my first posting wasn't very original, but I figured it was as good of a start to my diary as anything while I'm taking myself through the 'how to' phase of blog creation.

2008-05-17T10:31:00.001+02:00

The best things in life are free.