Steve Albrecht is Junior Professor at the Technical University of Berlin
Steve Albrecht is heading the junior investigator group "Perovskit Tandem Solar Cells" at the HZB. © A. Kubatzki/HZB
The Technische Universität Berlin (TU) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) have appointed Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht to the joint junior professorship "perovskite solar cells" as of December 15, 2018. Since 2016, Albrecht has headed the junior investigator group "Perovskit Tandem Solar Cells" at the HZB, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
With his team of 11, Albrecht researches and develops tandem solar cells that combine the advantages of silicon and perovskite solar cells. If both materials are combined to tandem solar cells, a larger part of the light spectrum can be converted. This increases efficiency. The junior research group recently succeeded in increasing the efficiency of perovskite silicon tandem solar cells to 25.5 percent.
Steve Albrecht will also take on teaching responsibilities at the TU Berlin as part of his junior professorship, including supervising a perovskite internship for students at the HZB.
Albrecht studied and completed his PhD in physics at the University of Potsdam. For his dissertation on organic solar cells he was awarded the Carl Ramsauer Prize of the German Physical Society and the Young Investigators Prize of the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam.
At the end of 2014, Albrecht joined the HZB as a postdoctoral researcher and established the research field perovskite solar cells at the center. In 2017, together with Eva Unger, he was in charge of setting up the infrastructure for the HySPRINT Perwoskit Laboratory at the HZB. Today, 40 users work here, producing and characterizing perovskite layers for solar cells using various techniques and methods.
- BESSY II: Evaporated perovskites in tandem solar cells improvedPerovskite-silicon tandem solar cells achieve significantly higher efficiencies than silicon solar cells on their own. One particularly attractive method is co-evaporation of the perovskite precursor molecules on top of the silicon subcell. Scientists at HZB have analysed film growth on the nanoscale at BESSY II and found a new way to improve the quality of the perovskite layer: adding a thin seed layer of caesium chloride between the two sub-cells promotes uniform perovskite growth and suppresses the formation of undesired lead iodide at the interface.
- Hatice Mutlu appointed to the Helmholtz Institute HIPOLE in JenaProf. Dr Hatice Mutlu is the new professor of sustainable polymer chemistry at HIPOLE Jena, the Helmholtz Institute for Polymers in Energy Applications. On 17 August 2026, she visited the HZB campus in Berlin-Adlershof including the BESSY II lightsource and discussed future collaboration with researchers and the board of directors.
- Green hydrogen with PEC electrolysers: New insights into transport processesOne method of storing solar energy is to use PEC electrolysers to produce hydrogen. However, scaling up this technology remains challenging. Now, a team at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels has used 2D fluorescence imaging and particle velocimetry to observe the movement of ions and dissolved gases within the electrolyte during electrolysis. These new insights may prove useful in the development of larger PEC electrolysers.