Jos Haverkort

Jos Haverkort investigates semiconductor nanowires for applications in solar cells and silicon-based light sources. His primary focus is on optical characterization of the nanowires. In the area of solar cells, the use of semiconducting nanowires embedded in a transparent polymer matrix allows for the production of cheap, versatile and very efficient devices. Nanowires feature a very high light extraction efficiency, allowing to achieve very high conversion efficiencies. His largest ambition is to develop a nanowire solar cell which is capable to re-direct all emitted photons back to the sun, to approach the ultimate conversion efficiency of more than 45%. The research group currently holds the world record in efficiency of nanowire InP solar cells (17,8%), which is a significant first step towards the ultimate efficiency flexible solar cell.

Haverkort's other ambition is to contribute to a silicon-based light source. Such a light source can be achieved by using hexagonal crystal phase SiGe (Hex-SiGe) which features a direct bandgap allowing to demonstrate efficient light emission. The final challenge is the development of a Hex-SiGe nanolaser, which would revolutionize the electronics industry by adding intra-chip and chip-to-chip communication at the speed of light - offering a significant reduction in energy consumption. Haverkort contributes to this topic through the optical characterization of Hex-SiGe nanowires as well as by serving as the project manager of the European SiLAS consortium, which is heading towards the demonstration of a SiGe nanolaser.

I love to contribute to innovative research. My ambition is to break the world record in solar cell efficiency by using semiconducting nanowires.