HZB Newsroom
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On the road to non-toxic and stable perovskite solar cells
To replace lead by less toxic elements is not easy since lead-free perovskites show lower stability and poor efficiencies. Now, an international collaboration has engineered a new hybrid perovskite material with promising efficiency and stability.
Condensed Matter Physics: Long-standing prediction of quantum physics...
90 years ago, the physicist Hans Bethe postulated that unusual patterns, so-called Bethe strings, appear in certain magnetic solids. Now an international team has succeeded in experimentally detecting such Bethe strings for the first time.
Battery research: Using neutrons and X-rays to analyse the ageing of lithium...
An international team has used neutron and X-ray tomography to investigate the dynamic processes that lead to capacity degradation at the electrodes in lithium batteries. Using a mathematical method, it was possible to virtually unwind electrodes.
World Record: Efficiency of perovskite silicon tandem solar cell jumps to 29.15...
In the race for ever higher efficiency levels, an HZB development team is once again ahead. The scientists have developed a tandem solar cell made of perovskite and silicon, which converts 29.15 per cent of the incident light into electrical energy.
Save time using maths: analytical tool designs corkscrew-shaped nano-antennae
For the first time, an HZB team has derived analytically how corkscrew-shaped nano-antennas interact with light. The mathematical tool can be used to calculate the geometry that a nano-antenna must have for specific applications in sensor technology or ...
World record in tomography: Watching how metal foam forms
Researchers from the HZB and the Paul Scherrer Institute have developed a more powerful imaging method with which more than 200 three-dimensional tomographic X-ray images can be taken every second during measurement intervals of just several minutes.
Charge transfer within transition-metal dyes analysed
Transition-metal complexes in dye-based solar cells are responsible for converting light into electrical energy. A model of spatial charge separation within the molecule has been used to describe this conversion. However, an analysis at BESSY II shows that ...
Utrafast magnetism: electron-phonon interactions examined at BESSY II
How fast can a magnet switch its orientation and what are the microscopic mechanisms at play ? These questions are of first importance for the development of data storage and computer chips. Now, an HZB team at BESSY II has for the first time been able to ...
Copper oxide photocathodes: laser experiment reveals location of efficiency loss
Solar cells and photocathodes made of copper oxide might in theory attain high efficiencies for solar energy conversion. In practice, however, large losses occur. Now a team at the HZB has been able to use a sophisticated femtosecond laser experiment to ...
3D tomographic imagery reveals how lithium batteries age
Lithium batteries lose amp-hour capacity over time. Microstructures can form on the electrodes with each new charge cycle, which further reduces battery capacity. Now an HZB team together with battery researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich, the University ...
Inorganic perovskite absorbers for use in thin-film solar cells
A team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has succeeded in producing inorganic perovskite thin films at moderate temperatures using co-evaporation – making post-tempering at high temperatures unnecessary. The process makes it much easier to produce thin-film ...
High-efficiency thermoelectric materials: new insights into tin selenide
Tin selenide might considerably exceed the efficiency of current record holding thermoelectric materials made of bismuth telluride. However, it was thought its efficiency became enormous only at temperatures above 500 degrees Celsius. Now measurements at the ...
Catalyst research for solar fuels: Amorphous molybdenum sulphide works best
Efficient and inexpensive catalysts will be required for production of hydrogen from sunlight. Molybdenum sulphides are considered good candidates. A team at HZB has now explained what processes take place in molybdenum sulphides during catalysis and why ...
HZB contributions to special edition on Ultrafast Dynamics with X-ray Methods
In the new special issue of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London", internationally renowned experts report on new developments in X-ray sources and ultrafast time-resolved experiments. HZB physicists have also been invited to ...
Water is more homogeneous than expected
In order to explain the known anomalies in water, some researchers assume that water consists of a mixture of two phases even under ambient conditions. However, new X-ray spectroscopic analyses at BESSY II, ESRF and Swiss Light Source show that this is not ...
New insights into magnetic quantum effects in solids
Using a new computational method, an international collaboration has succeeded for the first time in systematically investigating magnetic quantum effects in the well-known 3D pyrochlore Heisenberg model. The surprising finding: physical quantum phases are ...
Transition metal complexes: mixed works better
A team at BESSY II has investigated how various iron-complex compounds process energy from incident light. They were able to show why certain compounds have the potential to convert light into electrical energy. The results are important for the development ...
New records in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells through improved light...
Using microstructured layers, an HZB team has been able to increase the efficiency of perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells, achieving 25.5 %, which is the highest published value to date. At the same time, computational simulations were utilized to ...
Graphene on the way to superconductivity
Scientists at HZB have found evidence that double layers of graphene have a property that may let them conduct current completely without resistance. They probed the bandstructure at BESSY II with extremely high resolution ARPES and could identify a flat area ...
Blue phosphorus - mapped and measured for the first time
Until recently, the existence of "blue" phosphorus was pure theory: Now an HZB team was able to examine samples of blue phosphorus at BESSY II for the first time and confirm via mapping of their electronic band structure that this is actually this exotic ...
Neutrons scan magnetic fields inside samples
With a newly developed neutron tomography technique, an HZB team has been able to map for the first time magnetic field lines inside materials at the BER II research reactor. Tensorial neutron tomography promises new insights into superconductors, battery ...
HZB researchers boost the efficiency of silicon solar cells
The efficiency of a solar cell is one of its most important parameters. It indicates what percentage of the solar energy radiated into the cell is converted into electrical energy. The theoretical limit for silicon solar cells is 29.3 percent due to physical ...
Machine learning helps improving photonic applications
Photonic nanostructures can be used for many applications, not just in solar cells, but also in optical sensors for cancer markers or other biomolecules, for example. A team at HZB using computer simulations and machine learning has now shown how the design ...
Future information technologies: nanoscale heat transport under the microscope
A team of researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Potsdam has investigated heat transport in a model system comprising nanometre-thin metallic and magnetic layers. Similar systems are candidates for future high-efficiency ...
World record: Fastest 3D tomographic images at BESSY II
An HZB team has developed an ingenious precision rotary table at the EDDI beamline at BESSY II and combined it with particularly fast optics. This enabled them to document the formation of pores in grains of metal during foaming processes at 25 tomographic ...
Insight into loss processes in perovskite solar cells enables efficiency...
In perovskite solar cells, charge carriers are mainly lost through recombination occurring at interface defect sites. In contrast, recombination at defect sites within the perovskite layer does not limit the performance of the solar cells at present. Teams ...
Insight into catalysis through novel study of X-ray absorption spectroscopy
An international team has made a breakthrough at BESSY II. For the first time, they succeeded in investigating electronic states of a transition metal in detail and drawing reliable conclusions on their catalytic effect from the data. These results are ...
Neutron tomography: Insights into the interior of teeth, root balls, batteries,...
A team of researchers at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and European Spallation Source (ESS) has now published a comprehensive overview of neutron-based imaging processes in the renowned journal Materials Today (impact factor 21.6). The authors report on the ...
Kesterite solar cells: germanium promises better opto-electronic properties...
Specific changes in the composition of kesterite-type semiconductors make it possible to improve their suitability as absorber layers in solar cells. As a team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin showed, this is particularly true for kesterites in which tin was ...
Solar–to-hydrogen conversion: nanostructuring increases efficiency of...
Polymeric carbon nitrides exhibit a catalytic effect in sunlight that can be used for the production of hydrogen from solar energy. However, the efficiency of these metal-free catalysts is extremely low. A team at the Tianjin University in China, in ...
Hidden talents: Converting heat into electricity with pencil and paper
Thermoelectric materials can use thermal differences to generate electricity. Now there is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way of producing them with the simplest of components: a normal pencil, photocopy paper, and conductive paint are sufficient ...
40-year controversy in solid-state physics resolved
An international team at BESSY II headed by Prof. Oliver Rader has shown that the puzzling properties of samarium hexaboride do not stem from the material being a topological insulator, as it had been proposed to be. Theoretical and initial experimental work ...
Future IT: Antiferromagnetic dysprosium reveals magnetic switching with less...
HZB scientists have identified a mechanism with which it may be possible to develop a form of magnetic storage that is faster and more energy-efficient. They compared how different forms of magnetic ordering in the rare-earth metal named dysprosium react to a ...
Missing link between new topological phases of matter discovered
HZB-Physicists at BESSY II have investigated a class of materials that exhibit characteristics of topological insulators. During these studies they discovered a transition between two different topological phases, one of which is ferroelectric, meaning a ...
The miracle material graphene: convex as a chesterfield
Graphene possesses extreme properties and can be utilised in many ways. Even the spins of graphene can be controlled through use of a trick. This had already been demonstrated by a HZB team some time ago: the physicists applied a layer of graphene onto a ...
Writing with the electron beam: now in silver
For the first time an international team realized direct writing of silver nanostructures using an electron beam applied to a substrate. Silver nanostructures have the potential to concentrate visible light at the nanoscale. Potential applications include ...
New at Campus Wannsee: CoreLab Quantum Materials
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has expanded its series of CoreLabs for energy materials research. In addition to the five established CoreLabs, it has now set up a CoreLab for Quantum Materials. A research team from the HZB Institute for Quantum Phenomena in New ...
New lab for electrochemical interfaces at BESSY II
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) is establishing a joint lab together with the Max Planck Society (MPS) to study electrochemical phenomenon at solid/liquid interfaces. The Berlin Joint Lab for Electrochemical Interfaces, or BElChem for short, will employ ...
Better cathode materials for Lithium-Sulphur-Batteries
A team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has for the first time fabricated a nanomaterial made from nanoparticles of a titanium oxide compound (Ti4O7) that is characterised by an extremely large surface area, and tested it as a cathode material in ...
Proton transfer: Researcher find mecanism to protect biomolecules against light...
A team at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) together with researchers in Sweden and the USA has analysed a mecanism which protects biomolecules such as the DNA against damage by light. They observed how the energy of incoming photons can be absorbed by the ...
Research for Germany’s energy transition: EMIL@BESSY II approved for the...
The storage of excess solar and wind power is one of the greatest challenges in Germany’s energy transition. To address this, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) has created the "Power-to-X” (P2X) project under its ...
Methods at BESSY II: Versatile cross-correlator for ultrafast X-ray experiments
Particularly in the soft X-ray range experimentalists are lacking a broadband method to correlate ultrashort X-ray and laser pulses in space and time. Only recently, a team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the University of Potsdam was able to achieve this ...
Methodology advance at HZB: ionic liquids simplify laser experiments on liquid...
An HZB team has developed a new approach to conduct photoemission spectroscopy of molecules in solution. This has been difficult up to now because the sample needed to be situated in vacuum – but liquids evaporate. The work has now demonstrated it is ...
Future Information Technologies: New combinations of materials for producing...
An international collaboration at BESSY II has discovered a new method to inscribe exotic magnetic patterns such as magnetic monopoles into thin ferromagnetic films. Such unconventional orientation of magnetic domains might open a new path for the design of ...
Nanotechnology for energy materials: Electrodes like leaf veins
Nano-sized metallic wires are attracting increasing attention as conductive elements for manufacturing transparent electrodes, which are employed in solar cells and touch screen panels. In addition to high electric conductivity, excellent optical ...
VI-Conference "Dynamic Pathways in Multidimensional Landscapes 2016"
Near the museum island, in the heart of Berlin, the International Conference "Dynamic Pathways in Multidimensional Landscapes 2016" has taken place last week. More than 100 international experts met at the Magnus-Haus of the German Physical Society from 12 ...
Silicon thin fims in Lithium-Ion-Batteries: Charging observed with neutron...
The capacity of lithium-ion batteries might be increased theoretically by six times by using anodes made of silicon instead of graphite. A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) Institute of Soft Matter and Functional Materials has observed for the ...
Two Freigeist Fellows interweave their research at HZB
Two Freigeist Fellows are conducting research at the HZB Institute for Methods of Material Development through support received from the Volkswagen Foundation. Theoretical chemist Dr. Annika Bande is modelling fast electron processes, while Dr. Tristan Petit ...
Novel state of matter: Observation of a quantum spin liquid
A novel and rare state of matter known as a quantum spin liquid has been empirically demonstrated in a monocrystal of the compound calcium-chromium oxide by team at HZB. What is remarkable about this discovery is that according to conventional understanding, ...
Progress in the application of spin effects in graphene: from the metal to the...
Graphene on silicon carbide could be an interesting candidate for future spintronik components. Squeezing gold atoms between the semiconducting substrate and graphene does enhance spin-orbit interaction at hot spots and shows ways to controll the spins. First ...
Spintronics: Resetting the future of Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording
A HZB team has examined thin films of Dysprosium-Cobalt sputtered onto a nanostructured membrane at BESSY II. They showed that new patterns of magnetization could be written in a quick and easy manner after warming the sample to only 80 °Celsius, which is a ...
Ferrous chemistry in aqueous solution unravelled
An HZB team has combined two different analytical methods at the BESSY II synchrotron source in order to extract more information about the chemistry of transition-metal compounds in solution. These kinds of compounds can act as catalysts to promote desirable ...
Helmholtz Innovation Labs: HySPRINT at HZB
HZB will be setting up the new Helmholtz HySPRINT Innovation Lab for jointly developing new combinations of materials and processes in energy applications with commercial partners. Silicon and metal-organic perovskite crystals will be the centre point of the ...
Spintronics for future information technologies: spin currents in topological...
An international team headed by HZB researcher Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has shown how spin-polarised currents can be initiated in a controlled manner within samples of topological insulator material. In addition, they were able to manipulate the ...
Priority programme for topological insulators begins second funding period
Applicants for support funds to conduct research on topological insulators met at HZB Adlershof on February 15th and 16th. This meeting dealt with the second period of funding for the SPP 1666 Priority programme of the German Research Foundation (DFG) that ...
Solar fuels:a refined protective layer for the “artificial leaf”
A team at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels has developed a process for providing sensitive semiconductors for solar water splitting ("artificial leaves”) with an organic, transparent protective layer. The extremely thin protective layer made of carbon ...
Measuring chemistry: local fingerprint of hydrogen bonding captured in...
A team from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has been able for the first time to measure how new bonds influence molecules: they have reconstructed the "energy landscape” of acetone molecules using measurement data from the Swiss Light Source (SLS) of the Paul ...
Hint: HZB Postdoc Association introduces a Postdoc of the Month on their webpage
What have Galina Gurieva, Franziska Huschmann, Alex Redinger in common? They are postdocs working at HZB. For connecting each other and providing an channel for networking the HZB Postdoc Association introduces each month the work of one of the researchers at ...
Metal Oxide Sandwiches: New option to manipulate properties of interfaces
A Franco-German cooperation has investigated a sandwich system of transition metal oxides at BESSY II. The scientists discovered a new option to control properties of the interface between the two layers, for instance the amount of charge transferred from one ...
Matthias May mit dem Doktorandenpreis der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft ausgezeichnet
Dr. Matthias May erforschte in seiner Promotion am Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), wie man mit Sonnenlicht noch effizienter Wasser spalten und in Form von Wasserstoff speichern kann. Für seine Arbeit erhielt er am 27. Januar 2016 den mit 5.000 Euro dotierten ...
Alternative method for the representation of microstructures in polycrystalline...
Also Raman microspectroscopy in an optical microscope provides the means to determine local crystal orientations of polycrystalline materials over large sample areas. This method can be used alternatively to electron backscatter diffraction in a scanning ...
Whispering gallery modes in Silicon nanocones intensify luminescence
Silicon, a semiconducting material, reveals new talents when reduced to nanoscopic dimensions. A joint team at the HZB Institute of Nanoarchitectures for Energy Conversion and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (MPL) has demonstrated this. ...
Filming microscopic and macroscopic changes within materials
The EDDI beamline at BESSY II is now offering even more options. It has recently become possible to also obtain high-resolution three-dimensional images of microscopic structure with it, up to four such tomographies per second are possible. X-ray diffraction ...
BESSY II electron highway gets second lane
The particle accelerator team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has demonstrated that BESSY II, the 3rd generation synchrotron radiation source in Berlin, can be operated with not just one, but two simultaneous electron paths. By precisely tuning the magnetic ...
Scientists demonstrate how to improve ultrathin CIGSe solar cells by...
CIGSe solar cells are made of a thin chalcopyrite layer consisting of Copper, Indium, Gallium and Selenium and can reach high efficiencies. Since Indium is becoming scarce and expensive, it is interesting to reduce the active CIGSe layer, which however ...
Catalysis research strengthened: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin participates in newly...
The Einstein Foundation will fund the new Einstein Center for Catalysis (EC2) beginning in 2016 in which Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin) and selected non-university institutions in Berlin will be participating. Prof. Emad Aziz, head of the HZB ...
Charge transport in hybrid silicon solar cells
An HZB team headed by Prof. Silke Christiansen has made a surprising discovery about hybrid organic/inorganic solar cells. Contrary to expectations, a diode composed of the conductive organic PEDOT:PSS and an n-type silicon absorber material behaves more like ...
Transparent, electrically conductive network of encapsulated silver nanowires –...
A team headed by Prof. Silke Christiansen has developed a transparent electrode with high electrical conductivity for solar cells and other optoelectronic components – that uses minimal amounts of material. It consists of a random network of silver ...
Depletion and enrichment of chlorine in perovskites observed
X-ray spectroscopy at BESSY II reveals inhomogenous distribution of chlorine in a special class of perovskite materials. The discovery could help to enhance efficiencies of perovskite thin film solar cells by controlled processing to optimize the chlorine ...
New technique enables magnetic patterns to be mapped in 3D
An international collaboration has succeeded in using synchrotron light to detect and record the complex 3D magnetisation in wound magnetic layers. This technique could be important in the development of devices that are highly sensitive to magnetic fields, ...
Realistic computer model of battery electrodes
A research team has developed a new approach for more realistic computer models of battery electrodes. They combined images from synchrotron tomography that capture three-dimensional structure at micron resolution with those from an electron microscope that ...
Poster award for MatSEC PhD student at the MRS Spring Meeting
The poster contribution of Kai Neldner (HZB-Department Crystallography) was awarded a poster price of the Symposium "Thin-Film Compound Semiconductors" at the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Kai Neldner, a PhD student in the HZB Graduate School ...
Poster Award for HZB-Postdoc at EMRS Spring Meeting
During the spring meeting 2015 of the European Materials Research Society the Poster contribution of Dr. Ah Reum Jeong (HZB-Institute for Heterogeneous Material Systems) was selected for an award. The young scientist has presented results on electronic and ...
New options for spintronic devices: Switching between 1 and 0 with low voltage
Scientists from Paris and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have been able to switch ferromagnetic domains on and off with low voltage in a structure made of two different ferroic materials. The switching works slightly above room temperature. Their results, which are ...
Artificial photosynthesis: New, stable photocathode with great potential
A team at the HZB Institute for Solar Fuels has developed a new composite photocathode for generating hydrogen with high quantum efficiency using sunlight. This enables solar energy to be stored chemically.The photocathode consists of a thin film of ...
Inkjet printing process for Kesterite solar cells
A research team at HZB has developed an inkjet printing technology to produce kesterite thin film absorbers (CZTSSe). Based on the inkjet-printed absorbers, solar cells with total area conversion efficiency of up to 6.4 % have been achieved. Although this is ...
EU funding strengthens solar cell research at HZB
Marcus Bär and his team are participating in two international projects being funded under the EU Horizon 2020 research programme. Both research projects are concerned with development and optimisation of high-efficiency thin-film solar cells based on ...
Learning by eye: silicon micro-funnels increase the efficiency of solar cells
A biological structure in mammalian eyes has inspired a team headed by Silke Christiansen to design an inorganic counterpart for use in solar cells. With the help of conventional semiconductor processes, they etched micron-sized vertical funnels ...
Stretch and relax! – Losing one electron switches magnetism on in dichromium
An international team of scientists from Berlin, Freiburg and Fukuoka has provided the first direct experimental insight into the secret quantum life of dichromium. Whereas in its normal state the 12 valence electrons form a strong multiple bond between the ...
Details of a crucial reaction: Physicists uncover oxidation process of carbon...
An international team has observed the elusive intermediates that form when carbon monoxide is oxidized on a hot ruthenium metal surface. They used ultrafast X-ray and optical laser pulses at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California. ...
“VEKMAG” at BESSY II creates 3D magnetic fields in samples
Together with HZB, teams from the Universität Regensburg, from the Freie Universität Berlin and from the Ruhr Universität Bochum have jointly set up a unique measurement station at BESSY II: a vector electromagnet consisting of three mutually perpendicular ...