Berlin Science Award: Young Talent Award for Steve Albrecht
The award ceremony in the dinosaur hall of the Natural History Museum in Berlin: Governing Mayor Michael Müller, Steve Albrecht and laudator Jürgen Mlynek. © Landesarchiv Berlin
Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht was awarded by the Mayor of Berlin with the "Young Talent Award" (Nachwuchspreis) of the Berliner Wissenschaftspreis. © HZB/Michael Setzpfandt
On November 7, 2019, Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin and Senator for Science and Research, honoured outstanding research achievements for the twelfth time. Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht was honoured this year with the "Nachwuchspreis" (Young Talent Award) for his research on novel tandem solar cells. Albrecht teaches as a junior professor at the Institute for High Frequency and Semiconductor System Technologies at the Technical University of Berlin and heads the research group "Perovskite Tandem Cells" at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. The Young Talent Award is given to scientists who are not older than 35 years and is endowed with 10,000 euros.
The award recognises innovative research approaches in a future-oriented field that offers Berlin particular benefits as a science and business location.
“We warmly congratulate Steve Albrecht on this award. He has already achieved enormous progress in photovoltaic research including record efficiency levels and patents through his creative approaches“, says Prof. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
"The award is presented to a young scientist whose work on solar cells is advancing photovoltaic technology and directly building a bridge from research to application. Steve Albrecht is thus making a significant contribution to the energy transition. I congratulate him on his success," says Prof. Dr. Christian Thomsen, President of the Technical University of Berlin.
Albrecht is a junior professor at the Technische Universität Berlin and heads a Young Investigator Group focussed on perovskite tandem-solar-cell research at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. These types of solar cells combine conventional semiconductors such as silicon or CIGS with novel semiconductors made of metal-halide perovskite compounds. The advantage: these tandem solar cells convert a larger portion of the solar spectrum into electrical energy and thus achieve considerably higher efficiencies.
Albrecht has just published a new world record for a tandem CIGS-perovskite solar cell that he developed and patented with his team. The group conducts their research at the Helmholtz HySPRINT Innovation Lab and is working closely with colleagues at the HZB PVcomB (Photovoltaic Competence Centre Berlin) to develop these experimental tandem cells into a more mature technology.
About the prize winner:
Steve Albrecht grew up in Potsdam, Germany. He studied physics at the University of Potsdam where he earned his doctorate with distinction. He was awarded the Carl Ramsauer Prize of the German Physical Society (DPG) and the Young Investigators Prize of the Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam for his dissertation on organic solar cells. He came to the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin as a post-doctoral fellow in 2014. He has headed a Young Investigator Group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2016 and has held a junior professorship at the Technische Universität Berlin, Faculty IV - Electrical Engineering since December 2018.
Steve Albrecht founded a family at an early age and remained in the Berlin-Brandenburg region for that reason. During his studies he worked as a stuntman at the Babelsberg film studio in action films like Inglorious Bastards and the Tribute von Panem. He was awarded the “Apple of Inspiration“ together with Prof. Bernd Rech and Dr. Marko Jost by the President of Slovenia in 2018. He received the Karl Scheel Prize from the Physikalische Gesellschaft zu Berlin physics association this year for his research.
- Bright prospects for tin perovskite solar cellsPerovskite solar cells are widely regarded as the next generation photovoltaic technology. However, they are not yet stable enough in the long term for widespread commercial use. One reason for this is migrating ions, which cause degradation of the semiconducting material over time. A team from HZB and the University of Potsdam has now investigated the ion density in four different, widely used perovskite compounds and discovered significant differences. Tin perovskite semiconductors produced with an alternative solvent had a particular low ion density — only one tenth that of lead perovskite semiconductors. This suggests that tin-based perovskites could be used to make solar cells that are not only really environmentally friendly but also very stable.
- Joint Kyiv Energy and Climate Lab goes liveHelmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy established on 27 November a Joint Energy and Climate Lab.
- Long-term stability for perovskite solar cells: a big step forwardPerovskite solar cells are inexpensive to produce and generate a high amount of electric power per surface area. However, they are not yet stable enough, losing efficiency more rapidly than the silicon market standard. Now, an international team led by Prof. Dr. Antonio Abate has dramatically increased their stability by applying a novel coating to the interface between the surface of the perovskite and the top contact layer. This has even boosted efficiency to almost 27%, which represents the state-of-the-art. After 1,200 hours of continuous operation under standard illumination, no decrease in efficiency was observed. The study involved research teams from China, Italy, Switzerland and Germany and has been published in Nature Photonics.