HyPerCells Research School

Basic Research For High Efficiency Solar Cells

A joint Research School of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and University of Potsdam under the direction of Prof. Dr. Steve Albrecht (Technische Universität Berlin) and Dr. Felix Lang (University of Potsdam)

Objective

The objective of this joint Research School is to push interdisciplinary education, training, and research. This will allow participants to bridge commonly separated fields of research, which will enable novel research approaches and concepts.

Challenges to be solved

Despite the notable recent achievements reported for perovskite-based solar cells, many basic material properties including charge transport and recombination processes are not yet understood on a fundamental level for this new material system. It would be highly desirable to be able to deliberately adjust the optical properties such as the band gap, in order to enable perovskite semiconductor-based tandem solar cells with an optimal match of the absorption range to the sun spectrum.  Also, as lead is a toxic element subject to serious restrictions in production processes as well as in products, a partial or complete replacement of this metal by a non-toxic alternative would be advantageous.