Poster award for Johannes Sutter
Johannes Sutter received an award for his poster on solarcells at the NIPHO19. © Privat
Johannes Sutter, PhD student at HZB, was awarded a poster prize at the "International Conference on Perovskite Solar Cells, Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO19)". The conference took place from 25-27 February 2019 in Jerusalem.
Johannes Sutter is working on his PhD in the Nano-SIPPE group of Prof. Dr. Christiane Becker, his experimental work is done in the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT at HZB. He won a poster prize at the first international conference at which he was able to present his work. The prize from the scientific publisher Wiley was associated with a book voucher worth 300 euros.
Sutter develops nanostructures at interfaces in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells in order to facilitate spin coating of perovskite. These nanostructures should have low reflection values and good electronic properties.
By combining the processes of nanoimprint lithography and reactive ion etching, it is possible to transfer the nanostructures into crystalline silicon. Both optical and electronic investigations show that such interface structures can improve the properties of perovskite silicon tandem cells.
- CIGS-perovskite tandem cell achieves record efficiency of 25.5 %A Berlin-based team from HZB and Center for the Science of Materials Berlin (CSMB) at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has set a new record for a tandem solar cell. Using a combination of a CIGS semiconductor layer and perovskite, along with several optimised intermediate layers, they were able to convert 25.5% of sunlight into electrical energy. The previous record for this combination of materials and this size of cell stood at 24.6%. The new record has been certified and is visible in the prestigious Solar Cell Efficiency Tables (the "Green Tables"), which serve as the definitive ledger for the global photovoltaic community.
- Disorder creates new properties in compound semiconductorsAn international research team has demonstrated that the intrinsic disorder of the compound semiconductor CuInSnS₄ can be exploited to influence its optical properties. While the atomic vibrations also sense the local disorder, their response is averaged over many different local environments and therefore appear isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal. In contrast, the optical excitations, known as excitons, are much more sensitive to the local arrangement of atoms. Surprisingly, they show a direction-dependent optical response even though the average crystal structure is cubic. These findings shed new light on the relationship between disorder and material properties, opening up new options for targeted 'disorder engineering' in optoelectronic and photocatalytic devices.
- Perovskite solar cells: Predictions of long-term stabilityReliable statements about the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells are still difficult to make. However, a new study by Dr Carolin Ulbrich’s team, published in the renowned journal Joule, highlights which methods are useful for this purpose and identifies areas where further research is needed.