Karl Leo plenary: Organic Solar Cells: From a Lab Curiosity to a Serious Photovoltaic Technology

Carbon-based organic semiconductors have many potential advantages like easy large-area preparation on flexible substrates, large variety of materials, and low cost. Organic solar cells have recently achieved significant progress and have crossed the 10% efficiency mark.

In this plenary talk, Karl Leo of Technische University Dresden (Germany) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) (Saudi Arabia) presents an overview of the key features of solid-state organic solar cells and recent developments in the field.

One central research area is the design of the bulk heterojunction active layer, requiring a nanoscale phase separation and optimized morphology to achieve efficient operation. Leo also discussed highly efficient tandem structures with optimized electrical and optical properties, having the potential for approx. 20%.

Karl Leo obtained a Diplomphysiker degree and PhD degree from the Universities of Freiburg and Stuttgart, respectively. After postdocs at AT&T Bell Labs and RWTH Aachen, he became in 1993 full professor at TU Dresden. Currently, he is a visiting professor at KAUST.