Ultra-fast electron dimension gives important findings for the solar industry

• Using a new method, physicists from TU Freiberg, together with researchers from Berkeley and Hamburg, are for the very first time evaluating at the femtosecond range the processes in a version system for natural solar cells This can be utilized to develop high-performance as well as reliable solar cells. Trick to this are ultra-fast flashes of light, with which the team led by Dr. Friedrich Roth operates at FLASH in Hamburg, the globe's initial free-electron laser in the X-ray area.

" We capitalized on the special residential or commercial properties of this X-ray resource and increased them with time-resolved X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (TR-XPS). This technique is based on the exterior photoelectric effect, for the explanation of which Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. For the first time, we were able to directly analyze the details charge separation and succeeding processes when light hits a model system such as an organic solar cell. We were also able to identify the performance of the cost separation in real-time," discusses Dr. Roth from the Institute of Speculative Physics at TU Bergakademie Freiberg.

With photon science to better solar cells.

As opposed to previous approaches, the scientists had the ability to determine a previously unseen channel for charge separation. "With our measurement technique, we can perform a time-resolved, atom-specific analysis. This gives us a finger print that can be appointed to the connected particle. We can see when the electrons stimulated by the optical laser come to the acceptor molecule, the length of time they stay and when or how they vanish once again," states Prof. Serguei Molodtsov, clarifying the dimension method. He heads the research study group "Structural Research with X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs) and also Synchrotron Radiation" at the Freiberg Institute of Speculative Physics as well as is a Scientific Director at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (EuXFEL).

Evaluate weak points as well as increase quantum performance

Real-time analysis as well as the dimension of interior criteria are important elements of standard research that the solar market, particularly, can take advantage of. "With our dimensions, we attract essential verdicts regarding the interfaces at which free cost carriers are formed or lost and therefore compromise the performance of solar cells," adds Dr. Roth. With the searchings for of the Freiberg researchers, as an example, optimization opportunities at the molecular degree or in the field of materials scientific research can be acquired as well as quantum effectiveness enhance freshly arising solar and also photocatalytic systems. The quantum effectiveness defines the proportion of the event light to the photon stream (current that is produced). The team released the lead to an existing expert magazine, the journal Nature Communications.