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OMEGA Lab

Derya Baran is an Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering in the Organic/Hybrid Materials for Energy Applications (OMEGA) Lab in the Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) division at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She is also affiliated with the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) program in the Computer, Electrical, and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (CEMSE) division.

Center membership: KAUST Solar Center

Research Interests

​Professor Baran's research interests lie in the area of solution-processable organic/hybrid soft materials for electronic devices. Such soft semiconductor materials possess a viable platform for printed, large area, stretchable and wearable electronics that can be used as solar cells, smart windows, OFETs, thermoelectrics, sensors and bio-electronics.

​Professor Baran is particularly interested in interface engineering for organic/hybrid solar cells, transparent solar cells for building integrated photovoltaics and stability/degradation studies for long lifetime organic solar cells. She has led projects on i) conjugated polymers for electrochromic devices; ii) non-fullerene acceptors for organic solar cells; iii) multi-component and multi-layered solar cell devices; iv) understanding the correlation between recombination and nano-morphology in solution-processed solar cells.

Professor Baran aims to expand the applications of solution-processable organic/hybrid semiconductors and to explore their limits in organic/hybrid thermoelectric devices and bio-electronics in the future.

Selected Publications

  • Baran, D.; Ashraf, S. R.; Hanifi, A. David; Abdelsamie, M.; Gasparini, N.; Rohr, J.; Holliday, S.; Wadsworth, A.; Lockett, S.; Nelson, J.; Brabec, C. J.; Amassian, A.; Salleo, A.; Kirhcartz, T.; Durrant, J. R., McCulloch, I. ,2016, Reducing the efficiency–stability–cost gap of organic photovoltaics with highly efficient and stable small molecule acceptor ternary solar cells, Nat. Mater. DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4797.
  • Baran, D.; Kirhcartz, T.; Wheeler, S.; Dimitrov, S.; Abdelsamie, M.; Gorman, J.; Ashraf, S. R.; Holliday, S.; Gasparini, N.; Yan, H.; Amassian, A.; Brabec, C. J.; Durrant, J. R.; McCulloch, I., 2016, Reduced voltage losses yield 10% and >1V fullerene free organic solar cells, Energ. Environ. Sci., DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02598F.
  • Gasparini, N.; Jiao, Xuechen, Heumueller, T.; Baran, D.; Matt, G. M.; Fladischer, S.; Spieker, E.; Ade, H.; Brabec, C. J.; Ameri, T., 2016, Designing ternary blend bulk heterojunction solar cells with reduced carrier recombination and a fill factor of 77%, Nat. Energ. 1, 16118.
  • Holliday, S.; Ashraf, S. R.; Wadsworth, A.; Baran, D.; Nielsen, C. B.; Tan, C. H.; Dimitrov, S.; Yousaf, S. A.; Shang, Z.; Gasparini, N.; Brabec, C. J.; Salleo, A.; Durrant, J. R. ; McCulloch, I., 2016, High-efficiency and air-stable P3HT-based polymer solar cells with a new non-fullerene acceptor, Nat. Commun., 7,11585.
  • Hou Y.; Chen W.; Baran D.; Stubhan T.; Luechinger N. A.; Hartmeier B.; Richter M.; Min J.; Chen S.; Ramirez Quiroz C. O.; Li N.; Zhang H.; Heumueller T.; Matt G. J.; Osvet A.; Forberich K.; Zhang Z. G.; Li Y.; Winter B.; Schweizer P.; Spiecker E.; Brabec, C. J., 2016, Overcoming the Interface Losses in Planar Heterojunction Perovskite‐Based Solar Cells, Adv. Mater., 28, 5112–5120. 

Education Profile

  • ​Research Associate, Jülich Forschungszentrum, Germany, 2016.
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London, UK, 2015.
  • Ph.D., Material Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany, 2014.
  • MSc, Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Turkey, 2010.
  • BSc, Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Turkey, 2008.

Professional Memberships

  • Material Science and Engineering
  • Electrical and Computer Engineering