Prof. Dr. Christoph J. Brabec

Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Chair of Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology

Room 367
Martensstr. 7
91058 Erlangen

Publication list 1995-2020 (10/2021)

(see also Christoph’s detailed publication list)

• Research and development on organic and hybrid semiconductors, with a strong focus on the photophysics and transport properties of solution processed semiconductors.
• Development and investigation of solution processed solar cells, with a strong focus on the development of novel materials, investigation of microstructure and morphology formation in organic, hybrid and inorganic semiconductor composites and on fundamentals of thin film solar cells.
• Development of low cost production technologies for semiconductor devices building on ultraprecision printing & coating technologies and ultrafast laser patterning.
• Development of advanced optoelectronic devices for renewable energy applications like (i) 3rd generation solar cell technologies (ii) lighting and (iii) light management.
• Development and application of non-destructive imaging methods for optoelectronic devices, like EL or IR imaging.
• Development of combinatorial and high throughput methods for the discovery of energy materials and energy devices.
• Renewable energy systems and components for energy generation and storage

Curriculum Vitae

2018 – 2023: Appointment as Honorary Professor at the University Groningen
2018 – 2023: Appointment as Director at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg (HI-ErN), FZJ
2015 – 2017: Appointment as the Head of the Material Science and Engineering Department, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nürnberg
2013 – 2016: Appointed as Head of Board of ZAE Bayern eV
2013: Appointed as Speaker of the International Center for Nanostructured Films (IZNF) at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
2010 – 2018: Appointment as Board Member of the Energy Campus Nürnberg (EnCN) eV
2009 – 2018: Appointment as Executive Board Member of the ZAE Bayern
2009 – ongoing: Appointment to the scientific director of the ZAE Bayern, Erlangen
since 2009: Professor (W3), Institute Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology (i-MEET), Materials Science and Engineering Department, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
04/2006: Appointment to the CTO and Vice President at Konarka Technologies, Lowell, USA
2005: Appointment to the CEO for Konarka Austria and Konarka Nürnberg
08/2004: Appointment to Director of OPV at Konarka Technologies, Lowell, USA
2004 – 2009: Various positions at Konarka Technologies after a successful outsourcing of the organic photovoltaics activities from Siemens (PV research, organic semiconductor development, coating and printing process development, reliability, lifetime and product engineering)
2001 – 2004: Principal research scientist & project leader, Siemens Corporate Technology, Department Microsystems and Materials, Erlangen, Germany (solar cells, displays, electrochromic windows, photo- and X-Ray detectors)
1998 – 2001: Principal Investigator, CD Laboratory for Plastic Solar Cells, Linz, Austria (photovoltaics, printing and coating technologies, organic electronics)
1996: Sabbatical at the Institute for Polymers & Organic Solids at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Prof. Alan J. Heeger, Nobel laureate 2000 for Chemistry)
1995 – 1998: Research Assistant, Kepler University of Linz, Austria
1995: Promotion (Dr. tech), Institute of Physical Chemistry (Prof Schausberger, Prof Janeschitz-Kriegl), Johannes Kepler University Linz
1992 Physics Diploma, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Theoretical Physics

Professional Activities

Scientific Director, Board Member and Head of the Board of the ZAE Bayern e.V.
Spokesman and Coordinator of the Bavarian Research Project (Bavarian Ministry for Industry and
Technology): „Solar Factory of the Future, 2011 – 2016
Principal Investigator of the Excellence Cluster „Engineering of Advanced Materials“ (funded by DFG),
2010 – 2017
Principal Investigator of the Bavarian Research Project (Bavarian Ministry for Science & Education): “Solar Technologies goes Hybrid”, 2012 – 2017
Spokesman and Coordinator of the Bavarian Research Project (Bavarian Ministry for Industry and Technology) “Smart Grid Solar”, 2012 – 2017
Spokesman of the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanostructured Films, German Council of Science and Humanities (WBR), 2014 – 2018
Member of the Board of the Research Project “Energy Campus Nürnberg – EnCN, Phase 1 & 2) (2011-2021)
Member of the Advisory Board of PEC, Imperial College, London, UK (2014 – ongoing)
Member of the Advisory Board of AMBER (Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland) (2015 – ongoing)
Chairman or Member of Scientific Board of various magazines (Advanced Energy Materials – Wiley-VCH; Energy Technology, Wiley VCH; Progress in Photovoltaics – Wiley-VCH; Journal of Photonics for Energy – SPIE
Reviewer for multiple national and international research organizations as well as scientific journals

Honors & Awards:

2018 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2017 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2016 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2015 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2014 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2013 Ranked among the Top 1% materials researchers worldwide
(Thompson Reuters)
2011 Ranked as #12 among the top 100 material scientists for the last decade (by ISI)
2007 Rated among the top ten cited researchers in the field of organic electronics / solar cells
2005 “Inventor of the year” with the highest number of patents in the field of organic PV

Student Supervision:

more than 30 doctoral theses, 110 master and bachelor theses

Publications

More than 600 peer-reviewed scientific publications (h-index = 102 (Scopus), 117 (Google Scholar))

98 patents (status espacenet)
special issues (guest editor Journal of Photonics for Energy, JMR)
several proceedings (E-MRS Straßbourg, session on organic photovoltaics)
3 edited books (Springer and Wiley VCH)

Grants & Research Contracts

Acquired or supported acquiring Bavarian, German, European grants and industrial contracts, among them large scale initiatives like EnCN, EAM Cluster, IZNF, SFB, SGS, SFF, during 2010-2019 about 80 M€

Selected Recent Publications

(1) Y. Hou, X. Du, S. Scheiner, D.P. McMeekin, Z. Wang, N. Li, M.S. Killian, H. Chen, M. Richter, I. Levchuk, N. Schrenker, E. Spiecker, T. Stubhan, N.A. Luechinger, A. Hirsch, P. Schmuki, H.-P. Steinrück, R.H. Fink, M. Halik, H.J. Snaith, C.J. Brabec, A generic interface to reduce the efficiency-stability-cost gap of perovskite solar cells, Science, 358 (2017) 1192-1197. DOI: 10.1126/science.aao5561.

(2) S. Shrestha, R. Fischer, G.J. Matt, P. Feldner, T. Michel, A. Osvet, I. Levchuk, B. Merle, S. Golkar, H. Chen, S.F. Tedde, O. Schmidt, R. Hock, M. Rührig, M. Göken, W. Heiss, G. Anton, C.J. Brabec, High performance direct conversion X-ray detectors based on sintered hybrid lead triiodide perovskite wafers, Nat. Photon. 11 (2017) 436-440. DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2017.94.
(3) N. Gasparini, M. Salvador, S. Strohm, T. Heumueller, I. Levchuk, A. Wadsworth, J.H. Bannock, J.C. de Mell, H.J. Egelhaaf, D. Baran, I. McCulloch, C.J. Brabec, Burn‐in free nonfullerene‐based organic solar cells, Adv. Energy Mater. 7 (2017) 1700770. DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201700770.
(4) N. Gasparini, X. Jiao, T. Heumueller, D. Baran, G.J. Matt, S. Fladischer, E. Spiecker, H. Ade, C.J. Brabec, T. Ameri, Designing ternary blend bulk heterojunction solar cells with reduced carrier recombination and a fill factor of 77%, Nat. Energy 1 (2016) 16118. DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2016.118.
(5) S. Yakunin, M. Sytnyk, D. Kriegner, S. Shrestha, M. Richter, G.J. Matt, H. Azimi, C.J. Brabec, J. Stangl, M.V. Kovalenko, W. Heiss, Detection of X-ray photons by solution-processed lead halide perovskites, Nat. Photon. 9 (2015) 444-449. DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2015.82.
(6) F. Guo, H. Azimi, Y. Hou, T. Przybilla, M. Hu, C. Bronnbauer, S. Langner, E. Spiecker, K. Forberich, C.J. Brabec, High-performance semitransparent perovskite solar cells with solution-processed silver nanowires as top electrodes, Nanoscale 7 (2015) 1642-1649. DOI: 10.1039/C4NR06033D.
(7) A. Wadsworth, M. Moser, A. Marks, M.S. Little, N. Gasparini, C. J. Brabec , D. Baran, I. McCulloch Critical review of the molecular design progress in non-fullerene electron acceptors towards commercially viable organic solar cell, Chem. Soc. Review 48(6) (2019),1596-1625 DOI:10.1039/c7cs00892
(8) R. Steim, F.R. Kogler, C.J. Brabec, Interface materials for organic solar cells, J. Mater. Chem. 20 (2010) 2499-2512. DOI: 10.1039/B921624
(9) D. Tabor, … C.J. Brabec,.. A. Guzik-Aspuru Accelerating the discovery of materials for clean energy in the era of smart automation, Nat Rev. Materials 3(5), (2018) 5–20; DOI:10.1038/s41578-018-0005-z
(10) Y. Hou, W. Chen, D. Baran, T. Stubhan, N.A. Luechinger, B. Hartmeier, M. Richter, J. Min, S. Chen, C.O.R. Quiroz, N. Li, H. Zhang, T. Heumueller, G.J. Matt, A. Osvet, A., K. Forberich, Z.G. Zhang, Y. Li, Y., B. Winter, P. Schweizer, E. Spiecker, C.J. Brabec, Overcoming the Interface Losses in Planar Heterojunction Perovskite-Based Solar Cells Adv. Mater. 28 (2016) 5112-5120 DOI:10.1002/adma.201504168.