Education and Research Experience:
• 2001 - 2006 Ph.D School of Physics, Peking University
• 2006 - 2009 Postdoc University of Washington
• 2009 - 2016 Associate Professor School of Physics, Peking University
• 2016 - Professor School of Physics, Peking University
Research interests:
• Design and device applications based on semiconductor nanostructures
• Perovskite solar cells
• Solid-state nanopores
Prof. Zhao has published more than 60 papers in peer reviewed journals, such as Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, etc., which have been cited more than 3,000 times with H-index of 27 (as of March 2018).
As an emerging photovoltaic device, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells have the advantages of high power conversion efficiency, simple preparation process, low cost, and potential to be applied in flexible equipment, etc. The efficiency of perovskite solar cells has raised rapidly from 3.1% to the current record of 23.2% since it was reported, showing great application prospects. In the process of further applications, perovskite solar cells still have a series of key problems to be solved, such as stability issues and I-V hysteresis. Our group focused on both fundamental study of stability related mechanism such as ion migration and various methods toward highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. At present (2018 September), the prepared perovskite solar cells have achieved more than 21% certified efficiency, and the long-term stability of all-inorganic perovskite solar cells is more than 1500 hours.
Focused aspects:
• Operational stability
• Ion migration study in perovskite film and devices
• Interfacial engineering
• All-inorganic perovskite solar cells
A nanopore sensor is a device based on Coulter Counter: a nanometer-scale pore imbedded in a thin membrane separating two electrolyte-filled reservoirs. Driven by electric force, a charged analyte suspended in solution translocates through the nanopore, producing an ionic current drop due to the displacement of electrolyte volume in the nanopore. The statistical analysis of the ionic current drops and their duration time can reveal the geometry and charge properties of the analyte. Nanopore technology was proposed for the ultimate goal of high-throughput DNA sequencing nearly two decades ago. And now it has been widely extended to detect and investigate protein molecules as well.
