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discovered_01_2015

discovered 01.15 FOCUS WWW.HZDR.DE Solar cells with sulfur and tellurium Shengqiang Zhou is trying to drive the development of semiconductors in yet another field of application. In typical solar cells, a semiconducting material transforms light into electric current. However, such photovoltaics are not very efficient. Tandem solar cells made from two different semiconductors are a more effective option. One of these might be silicon doped with sulfur, selenium or tellurium. ‘This means implanting a thousand times more foreign atoms into the silicon than for a semiconductor in a computer chip,’ the HZDR researcher explains. This is a very tricky task, as these elements do not fit as well into the silicon crystals as phosphorus that was previously used: a perfect challenge for Shengqiang Zhou and his team, which is considered to be the expert task force for unsolvable problems. PUBLICATIONS: S. Zhou et al.: ‘Hyperdoping silicon with selenium: Solid vs. li- quid phase epitaxy’, in Scientific Reports 2015 (DOI 10.1038/ srep08329) M. Khalid, E. Weschke, W. Skorupa, M. Helm, S. Zhou: ‘Ferromagnetism and impurity band in a magnetic semicon- ductor: InMnP’, in Physical Review B 2014 (DOI 10.1103/ PhysRevB.89.121301) Eleven Junior Research Groups at HZDR Funds for excellent young researchers to set up their own research group can, for example, be obtained from the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the Emmy- Noether-Program. One of these researchers is Helmut Schultheiß, who leads his own HZDR group on ‘Spin waves bridging Spintronics and Photonics’. The purpose of the five-year DFG program is to get gifted young scientists on a fast track towards a leadership position in science, such as a university professorship. The Helmholtz Association is highly committed to supporting outstanding young scientists. Three HZDR junior research group leaders each receive up to 250,000 euro annually: Alina Maria Deac and Shengqiang Zhou for their work in the field of semiconductor research, and Moritz Schmidt for basic research on the issue of radioactive waste storage. HZDR itself also gives qualified young scientists an opportunity to lead their own research group and manage their own budget. After a period of three and five years, the junior research groups are evaluated by a committee of HZDR scientists; if successful, the leaders can be offered a permanent employment contract. Currently, there are seven junior research groups at HZDR: one group is dedicated to cancer research, two of them work on energy-related topics, and four groups conduct research on materials and accelerators. CONTACT _Helmholtz Junior Research Group on Functional Materials at HZDR Dr. Shengqiang Zhou s.zhou@hzdr.de TEAM WORK: Shengqiang Zhou (left) with his colleagues and research group members – Wenbo Luo, Yutian Wang, Danilo Bürger, Slawomir Prucnal and Kun Gao (left to right).

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