Daryl Chapin

Daryl Chapin was an American engineer at Bell Telephone Laboratories who, tasked in the early 1950s with finding a more reliable power source than selenium cells for remote telephone equipment in humid climates, developed the silicon photovoltaic cell into a practical device by working out how to grow and dope silicon crystals suitable for solar conversion. Working alongside chemist Calvin Fuller, who developed the doping process, and physicist Gerald Pearson, Chapin helped build and publicly demonstrate the Bell Solar Battery in 1954, the first silicon solar cell efficient enough for practical use, achieving around six percent efficiency compared to seleniums fraction of one percent. Chapins systematic testing of different doping combinations and cell configurations was essential to pushing the Bell teams cell from a laboratory curiosity to a device that attracted immediate public and commercial attention. The Bell Solar Battery he helped build is generally regarded as the birth of the modern silicon solar cell industry.