Researchers from Innovation Lab HySPRINT at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) have used an advanced inkjet printing technique to produce a large range of photodetector devices based on a hybrid perovskite semiconductor. By mixing of only three inks, the researchers were able to precisely tune the semiconductor properties during the printing process. Inkjet printing is already an established fabrication method in industry, allowing fast and cheap solution processing. Extending the inkjet capabilities from large area coating towards combinatorial material synthesis opens the door for new possibilities for the fabrication of different kind of electronic components in a single printing step.

Wonder material metal halide perovskites
Metal halide perovskites are fascinating to researchers in academia and industry with the large range of possible applications. The fabrication of electronic components with this material is particularly appealing, because it is possible from solution, i.e. from an ink. Commercially available salts are dissolved in a solvent and then deposited on a substrate. The group around Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil, member of IRIS Adlershof and head of a joint research group at HZB and HU, focusses on building these types of devices using advanced fabrication methods such as inkjet printing. Researcher at HZB have already used inkjet printing to fabricate solar cells and LEDs made from perovskites. The inkjet capabilities were further expanded in 2020, when the group of Dr. Eva Unger first used a combinatorial approach to inkjet printing, to print different perovskite compositions in search of a better solar cell material.

Now, in this current work, the team around Prof. Emil List-Kratochvil found an exciting application for a large perovskite series within wavelength-selective photodetector devices. “Combinatorial inkjet printing cannot only be used to screen different compositions of materials for solar cell materials,” he explains, “but also enables us to fabricate multiple, separate devices in a single printing step.” Looking towards an industrial process, this would enable large scale production of multiple electronic devices. Combined with printed electronic circuits, the photodetectors would form a simple spectrometer: paper thin, printed on any surface, potentially flexible, without the need of a prism or grid to separate the incoming wavelengths.

Emil List-Kratochvil is Professor of Hybrid Devices at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, member of IRIS Adlershof and head of a Joint Lab founded in 2018 that is operated by HU together with HZB. In addition, a team jointly headed by List-Kratochvil and HZB scientist Dr. Eva Unger is working in the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT at HZB on the development of coating and printing processes for hybrid perovskites. For a few days she is also a member of IRIS Adlershof.

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We are delighted to welcome Prof. Dr. Ulf Leser as a member of IRIS Adlershof.
He is a full professor at the Institute for Computer Science at Humboldt-Universiät zu Berlin. His main research interests are biomedical data management and text mining, infrastructures for large-scale scientific data analysis, and statistical Bioinformatics, with a focus on cancer research.
He is speaker of the Collaborative Research Center "Foundations of Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis (FONDA)" and of the collaborative research project "Comprehensive Data Integration for Precision Oncology (PREDICT)". From 2014-2019, he was speaker of the Research Training Group "Service-oriented Architectures for Health Care Systems (SOAMED)". Furthermore, he currently is principal investigator in the interdisciplinary graduate schools "Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO)" and "Computational Methods for Precision Oncology (CompCancer)", in the "Heibrids graduate school an Data Science", the research unit "Beyond the Exome", and the Einstein Center for Digital Future Berlin (ECDF).

IRIS Adlershof is looking forward to a good and fruitful collaboration.

The IRIS Council (IRIS-Rat) decided to offer other scientists full membership in IRIS Adlershof. We are very pleased that our offer has been accepted and we can introduce you to:

Dr. Eva Unger is head of the new department  Solution processes for hybrid materials and components at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and has been working closely with IRIS Adlershof for some time as part of the Joint Lab GenFab. In particular, she is interested in scalable deposition methods of high value semiconductors such as metal halide perovskites and a deeper understanding of layer formation. Eva Unger has recently received call for a professorship at the Department of Chemistry at HU.

Theoretical physicist and materials scientist Professor Matthias Scheffler, head of the NOMAD Laboratory at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society and honorary professor at the Department of Physics at the HU, conducts research on fundamental aspects of the chemical and physical properties of surfaces as well as on methodological developments in artificial intelligence to solve fundamental problems in materials science. Since 2020, he leads the European Center of Excellence NOMAD and is Co-speaker of the NFDI consortium FAIRmat.

The physicist Julia Stähler is a professor at the Department of Chemistry of HU with a research focus on ultrafast spectroscopy on nanostructured materials, in particular also on inorganic/organic hybrid systems. She is a subproject leader in the Collaborative Research Center 951 “Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Systems for Opto-Electronics (HIOS)”, one of the lighthouse projects of IRIS Adlershof.

There are also two more, but not entirely new members: Two previous junior members, Prof. Dr. Michael J. Bojdys and Dr. Valentina Forini, have received full membership, which means that IRIS Adlershof now has 27 full members.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates its new members and is looking forward to a fruitful cooperation.

IRIS Adlershof is delighted to announce that three promising young scientists, namely Dr. Oliver Dumele, Dr. Nichol Furey, and Dr. Sebastian Heeg, will be joining as junior members.

Oliver Dumele is head of a Liebig junior research group at the Department of Chemistry at HU. He is an organic synthetic chemist with expertise in supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly systems. He believes that 2D layered structures are fascinating supramolecular platforms.

Nichol Furey is a 'Freigeist' fellow of the Volkswagen Foundation at the Institute for Physics at HU and at the IRIS Adlershof. She researches the algebraic structure of elementary particle physics as well as octonions and the standard model of particle physics.

Sebastian Heeg heads an Emmy Noether junior research group at the Institute for Physics at HU. He is interested in the investigation of low-dimensional solid-state systems, for example graphenes and nanotubes, with optical spectroscopy.

IRIS Adlershof warmly congratulates its new junior members and is looking forward to a good and fruitful collaboration.

The Board of Trustees (Kuratorium) of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has decided to extend IRIS Adlershof until October 31, 2024. It follows a corresponding proposal by the Academic Senate of the HU, which is based on the successful evaluation of IRIS Adlershof by an external commission of experts.

We are very pleased to continue the previous successful interdisciplinary scientific research!

The State of Berlin is providing the Innovation Network for Advanced Materials (INAM e.V.) and its cooperation partners, such as IRIS Adlershof of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, around 1.1 million EUR to set up an incubator programme specifically tailored to material science start-ups. In addition to accompanied access to the high-quality equipped and newly opened research building of IRIS Adlershof and the Innovation Lab HySPRINT at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, scholarships will be provided to enable the founders to dedicate themselves to the development of their business ideas and products.

Starting Friday, 3 December 2021, 12:00 noon, founders with a focus on new materials can apply for a place in the incubator programme. More information on the application process is provided at www.inam.berlin/admalab. In addition to the innovative activities in the lab, the selected startups receive an intensive mentoring and training programme which is supported by Humboldt Innovation GmbH and experts from various specialist areas. On 15 December 2021 at 10 a.m., the project partners will provide more detailed information about the incubator programme in a webinar. Interested parties can register here.

With the Berlin Startup Stipendium, which provides the grant, the State of Berlin has launched a funding programme to turn innovative ideas into products for those willing to start a business. With the funding from the European Social Fund and the State of Berlin, scholarship holders can advance their business ideas in various subject areas. Over 120 innovative startup projects have already been supported. This success can now be expanded further with the AdMaLab into the field of materials science.