Before 2020, Feng Gao was associate professor (2017-2020), assistant professor (2015-2017), and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow (2013-2015) at Linköping. He received his Docent from Linköping in 2016, his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge in 2011, and his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Nanjing University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He works at the interfaces between physics, chemistry, and materials science, focusing on the development of novel optoelectronic devices for energy technologies.
Research
Prof. Gao’s group dedicates its efforts to energy devices, with the ambition to both improve device performance and understand the underlying fundamentals. Their current investigations include organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites, with research focuses such as:
Fullerene-free organic solar cells, including low voltage losses, green solvent processing and new applications.
Nature Energy 2016
Nature Materials 2018
Nature Materials (review) 2018
Nature Energy 2019
Nature Energy 2021
Nature Energy 2021
Nature Energy 2023
Nature Photonics 2023
Perovskite solar cells, with a focus on understanding and improving the stability:
Perovskite LEDs, with the motivation to improve the device performance and also explore new applications:
Nature Photonics 2019
Nature Electronics 2020
Nature Materials (Review) 2021
Nature Communications 2021
Lead-free perovskites, aiming to tune the optoelectronic properties and explore their magnetic properties:
Advanced Materials (Review) 2019
Science Advances 2020
Perovskites for other applications, e.g. X-ray detection and lasers:
Nature Photonics 2022
Advanced Materials 2023
See the full list of publications at Google Schoolar:
Organic semiconductors
Organic semiconductors have a large potential in low-cost and large-area device applications, benefiting from cheap manufacturing processes such as solution-based roll-to-roll printing.
All device applications previously dominated by inorganic semiconductors have presented opportunities for their organic counterparts. Such applications include solar cells, LEDs, field-effect transistors, lasers, and memory devices.
Metal halide perovskites
Metal halide perovskites have emerged as one of the most popular semiconducting materials since 2009. They have shown unique properties, including:
- Tunable bandgap
- High absorption coefficient
- Broad absorption spectrum
- High charge carrier mobility
- Long charge diffusion lengths
These properties enable metal halide perovskites to be used in a broad range of photovoltaic and other optoelectronic applications.
Solar cells
Although the current solar cell market is dominated by silicon-based devices, the recent emergence of solution-processed solar cells based on organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites has shown great potential for commercial applications. For example, the power conversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells has soared from a few percent to over 25% within the past few years. Such a quick development has never before happened in the history of photovoltaics.
LEDs
LEDs, which emit light by a solid-state process called electroluminescence, are considered the most promising energy-efficient technologies for future lighting and displays. Metal halide perovskites demonstrate strong photoluminescence and tunable emission energy, making them a promising candidate for the next generation of highly efficient LEDs.
Lasers
Electrically pumped lasers are considered as a holy grail in the field of optoelectronics. Recent breakthroughs on optically pumped perovskite lasers and high-performance perovskite LEDs indicate great potential of developing perovskites into a new generation of materials for electrically pumped lasers.
Funding
Prof. Gao's research group is mainly supported by the following funding agencies:
- European Research Council
- VR
- Swedish Strategic Research Foundation - SSF
- The Wallenberg Foundations
- Swedish Energy Agency - Energimyndigheten
- FORMAS
- Vinnova
- Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Group and Supervision
Prof. Feng Gao is deeply involved in both the scientific and career development of his group members. The senior researchers in his group have been awarded the prestigious VR (Starting) Grants, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, VINNMER Fellowship. He also values the exchange of ideas: he has sponsored members of his group in exchanges to Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College and EPFL, and his group has hosted visiting students and scholars from Cambridge, Oxford, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Nanjing Tech University, Shenzhen University, Queen Mary University of London, and more.
