Research Interest

My research interest is twofold: the development of new thin film solar cells and the semiconductor physics of the materials used in these cells. Our goal is to contribute to making thin film solar cells better, because we are convinced that they have to play a crucial role in mitigating the climate crisis. We prepare chalcopyrite solar cells by coevaporation and aim at improving their efficiency. We study the electronic structure of chalcopyrites and related materials by photoluminescence and capacitance based methods. We have contributed significantly to clarifying the electronic defects in Cu(InGa)Se2 and to the understanding of the limitations of state of the art devices.

Biography

Susanne Siebentritt is a physics professor and heads the laboratory for photovoltaics at the University of Luxembourg.

She studied physics at the University of Erlangen and received her doctoral degree from the University of Hannover. After several postdoc positions at the University of Los Angeles, the Free University of Berlin and the Hahn-Meitner-Institute (now Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin), she led a group at Hahn-Meitner-Institute for nearly 10 years, which focused on the physics of chalcopyrite solar cells. In 2007 she moved to Luxembourg and built up the laboratory for photovoltaics. She recently became head of the doctoral school in science and engineering at the University of Luxembourg.

She is the author of more than 190 peer reviewed publications, with more than 4500 independent citations. In 2015 she was awarded the “Grand Prix en Sciences Physique – Prix Paul Wurth” of the Luxembourgish Institut Grand Ducal. Since 2016 she is a board member for the Kopernikus projects, a 10 years research programme for the energy transition of the German Ministry of Education and Research.