Dr. Jan Meiß recognized for organic solar cells with "Green Photonics" Award

Dresden, Germany - Scientist Jan Meiß has been awarded with the "Green Photonics“ for young academics on the 23rd of April 2012 at the Hanover Fair. Within his dissertation, in cooperation with Heliatek GmbH and Fraunhofer IPMS – COMEDD, he succeeded in the development of new concepts for organic solar cells with high impact: his solar cells are four times more efficient as conventional organic solar cells.

Producing electricity from sun light sounds easy and tempting, but photovoltaics have come under criticism because of their high costs. Depending on the type of solar cells, costs may increase because of rare and expensive materials.

The so called "organic photovoltaic“ (OPV)—also known as “plastic solar cells”—has a high potential for reduced cost. The technology is ready to enter the market and can be carried out under low temperatures (<400°C) using cost-saving materials. The complete solar cell could be thinner than 500 nanometers! Organic materials used are dyes based on carbonates, commonly known as food colorant or car finish. The vision is a thin, light-weight solar cell of plastic foil with a weight of 500 g per square meter active area, which can be rollable, transportable, and easy integratable. Transparent devices are of high interest for the integration of photovoltaic technology into faces of buildings or as “power windows”—windows, which can be used as a sunscreen as well as a power generator.

The dissertation of Jan Meiß resulted in important progress for organic solar cells: he developed alternatives to conventional transparent conductive layers (e.g. ITO – Indium-Tin-Oxide), which can conserve resources, save costs, and are simple to produce.

Jan Meiß says, “Because of an optimized layer composition we succeded in the development of an organic solar cell with an efficiency of 4.9 % and a transmission of 20 %. This means one-fifth of the irradiated light goes completely through the organic solar cell. The efficiency of the transparent organic solar cell has been seven times higher as known from literature and is unbeaten until now.”

“Green Photonics” awards young academics, who work on innovative optical technologies with economic potential for sustainable life. Jan Meiß has achieved this objective with his dissertation at the Technical University of Dresden (IAPP) with support of Heliatek and the Fraunhofer IPMS – COMEDD. The TU Dresden and Fraunhofer IPMS – COMEDD has established a cooperation model “Innovationscampus” for R&D of novel organic devices.

Dr. Jan Meiß's Education:

2007 – 2011: PhD at the Institute of Applied Photophysics in experimental physics under Prof. Karl Leo at the Technical University of Dresden. Dissertation, "New Material Concepts for Organic Solar Cells", filed 5/2010, defended 2/2011.
2004 - 2006: Studies in "Computational Science" at the Technical University of Chemnitz. M.Sc. In 2006, final grade of "Excellent with Distinction". Thesis on scanning tunneling spectroscopy of metal-phthalocyanines on graphite (Advisor: Prof. M. Hietschold).
2004 - 2005: Degree in physics as a DAAD scholarship at Portland State University Portland, OR. M.Sc. in Physics, December 2005 (GPA 3.99 of 4.00). Thesis on electrodeposition of ZnO nanostructures and their applications in devices (supervisor: Prof. R. Könenkamp).
2001 - 2004: Studied "Computational Science" at the Technical University of Chemnitz. B.Sc., September 2004 (final grade "Very Good").
2000: High school (gymnasium Ernestinum Rinteln)