Optoelectronics

We are a multidisciplinary team focusing on solution-processed optoelectronic materials and devices, with a passion for both fundamental science and new applications of these materials and devices.

Optoelectronic devices, such as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), solar cells, photodetectors, lasers and optical transmitters and receivers, are an important part in maintaining a sustainable world. The emergence of exceptional solution-processed semiconductors, including organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites, offers great opportunities for developing new generations of optoelectronic devices that are of high performance, cost-effective, and integrable with other technological systems.

We have developed a worldwide professional network for collaborations and are also actively engaging in collaborations with industry partners.

News

LiU researchers on the list of the world鈥檚 most cited

Researchers from LiU among the world鈥檚 most influential. Clarivate has once again listed those who rank within the top one per cent most cited in their research fields.

Huotian Zhang receives royal scholarship for his solar energy research

For the second year in a row, a researcher at the Division of Optoelectronics at 福利姬, has been awarded the prestigious scholarship from Stiftelsen Konung Carl XVI Gustafs 50-årsfond för vetenskap, teknik och miljö.

Prestigious physics award for Feng Gao

This year's Göran Gustafsson Prize in Physics goes to LiU professor Feng Gao. His research focuses on how new materials can be used for the next generation of solar cells and LEDs, among other things. The total prize money is SEK 7.5 million.

Materials

Organic semiconductors

Organic semiconductors have great 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 photovoltaics and other optoelectronic applications.

Lead free perovskites /Lead free metal halides

The state-of-the-art halide perovskites used for high-performance optoelectronic devices contain toxic lead (Pb). It is therefore attractive to develop lead free perovskites or perovskite alike materials with as good properties as the lead containing counterparts. These new materials provide a rich library to investigate fundamental optoelectronic properties and bring about new possibilities to explore the spintronic properties (e.g. when magnetic ions are involved).

Optoelectronic devices

Organic solar cell with the aktive layer Pm6:Y6 Photo credit Olov PlanthaberSolar cells

Solar power is an ideal source for renewable and clean energy. Solar cells are semiconducting devices which can directly convert solar energy into electricity.
The current solar cell market is dominated by silicon-based devices, with just over 2% of global electricity coming from solar in 2019. The emerging solution-processed solar cells based on organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites have shown great potential to significantly promote the widespread use of the solar cell technology owing to their advantages of both high performance and low cost.

Perovskite quantum dots Photo credit Olov PlanthaberLEDs

Lighting and displays products are vital electric devices in our daily life, which also account for the largest portion of electricity consumption. LEDs are semiconductor light sources, which emit light when current flows through them. LEDs are considered the most promising energy-efficient technologies for lighting and displays.

Metal halide perovskites demonstrate strong photoluminescence and tunable emission colours, making them a promising candidate for the next generation of highly efficient LEDs.

A combined optical transmitter and receiver Photo credit Magnus JohanssonOther devices

Photodetectors and optical receivers are sensors of light, which can convert light signals into electric signals. They have wide applications, such as optical communication and medical/ healthcare instruments.

Lasers are unusual light sources. They emit a very narrow beam of monochromatic light that is amplified and coherent. Lasers have a variety of applications, ranging from precision cutting tools to communications and scientific instruments.

Research and funding

Research

The Optoelectronic group lead by Prof. Gao 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 (OSCs) (see our Review article in ). We are interested in fundamental working mechanisms of OSCs (e.g. voltage losses in , , and ; at the same time, we also collaborate with our partners to develop OSCs towards practical applications (e.g. indoor applications of OSCs in , and green solvent processing of OSCs in ).
Perovskite solar cells. We focus on developing stable perovskite solar cells and understanding the degradation mechanisms (e.g. stable perovskite solar cells in )
Perovskite LEDs (see our Review article in ). We aim to develop high-performance perovskite LEDs with different colours (e.g. near infrared in and blue in ), understand the mechanisms (e.g. operational mechanisms in Nature Communications, chemical interactions for high-efficiency and stable perovskite LEDs in and ), and explore new applications (e.g. bidirectional optical signal transmission in )
Lead-free perovskites (see our Review article on lead-free double perovskites in ). We focus on new materials development (e.g. iron-doped double perovskites in ) and the understanding of fundamental properties (e.g. self-trapping in double perovskites in ).

Funding

The Optoelectronic Unit is mainly supported by the following funding agencies:

Publications

2026

Yatao Zou, Yuting Xu, Feng Gao, Weidong Xu (2026) NATURE REVIEWS MATERIALS (Article, review/survey)

Cecilia Bruschi, Ihor Sahalianov, Yuri Tanuma, Levani Skhirtladze, Rashid Valiev, Xinyi Cai, Feng Gao, Mikhail Vagin, Yann Lie, Michael Pittelkow, Renee Kroon, Glib Baryshnikov (2026) Materials Chemistry Frontiers (Article in journal)

Lingjiao Zhang, Baiquan Liu, Xinyang Lv, Genghui Zhang, Chenglin Li, Wenjing Zhang, Yunfei Ren, Ziming Chen, Meiyu Zhang, Qifan Xue, Zhenyu Yang, Baodan Zhao, Dongfang Yang, Hang Zhou, Feng Gao, Dawei Di, Chuan Liu (2026) Advanced Materials (Article in journal)

Lu Jin, Shaochen Zhang, Jingjing Zhou, Shenglong Chu, Xiaonan Wang, Zihan Yan, Xiaohe Miao, Rui Zhang, Qingqing Liu, Huazheng Li, Jiazhe Xu, Xu Zhang, Ke Zhao, Donger Jin, Yizhou Zhu, Feng Gao, Jingjing Xue, Rui Wang (2026) Nature Communications, Vol. 17, Article 1737 (Article in journal)

Nannan Sun, Sheng Fu, Yunfei Li, Tianshu Ma, Feng Wang, Wentai Ouyang, Bo Feng, Xiaotian Zhu, Zhengbo Cui, Canglang Yao, Wenxiao Zhang, Xiaodong Li, Changlei Wang, Feng Gao, Junfeng Fang (2026) Nature Photonics (Article in journal)

Yanmei He, Xinyi Cai, Rafael B. Araujo, Yibo Wang, Sankaran Ramesh, Junsheng Chen, Muyi Zhang, Tomas Edvinsson, Feng Gao, Tonu Pullerits (2026) Nature Communications, Vol. 17, Article 758 (Article in journal)

Yuwei Li, Xiangyu Ou, Shilin Liu, Jingda Zhao, Lu Xue, Chengjun Liu, Bingjian Zhu, Su Yan, Shuo Wang, Ziyu Wei, Sajid Hussain, Wei Lei, Feng Gao, Xiaobao Xu (2026) Science Advances, Vol. 12, Article eadz0228 (Article in journal)

Haobo Yuan, Wenxiao Zhang, Feng Wang, Jianhong Xu, Yuyang Hu, Xuemin Guo, Yunfei Li, Bo Feng, Zhengbo Cui, Wen Li, Sheng Fu, Xiaodong Li, Feng Gao, Junfeng Fang (2026) Nature Communications, Vol. 17, Article 360 (Article in journal)

Tianzhao Xu, Zhencai Li, Kai Zheng, Hanmeng Zhang, Kenji Shinozaki, Huotian Zhang, Lars R. Jensen, Feng Gao, Jinjun Ren, Yanfei Zhang, Yuanzheng Yue (2026) Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, Vol. 674, Article 123923 (Article in journal)

Guo-Bin Xiao, Niansheng Xu, Zhen-Yang Suo, Sibei Mai, Dandan Hu, Feng Gao, Jing Cao (2026) Advanced Materials, Vol. 38, Article e18752 (Article in journal)

Sakarn Khamkaeo, Kunpot Mopoung, Kingshuk Mukhuti, Maarten W. de Dreu, Anna Dávid, Muyi Zhang, Mats Fahlman, Feng Gao, Peter C. M. Christianen, Irina A. Buyanova, Weimin M. Chen, Yuttapoom Puttisong (2026) Nature Communications, Vol. 17, Article 41507169 (Article in journal)

2025

Hailin Yu, Liutao Chen, Jiayu Wang, Chunxiong Bao, Yang Liu, Yuanhao Li, Yating Mo, Yingyue Hu, Nakul Jain, Xi He, Yinghan Wang, Qichao Ran, Cenqi Yan, Zhe Wang, Borong Lin, Yinhua Zhou, Feng Gao, Pei Cheng (2025) Materials Horizons (Article in journal)

Wei Liu, Jun Yuan, Yijie Nai, Nakul Jain, Zhenquan Fu, Weikun Chen, Jie Wu, Rui Zhang, Huotian Zhang, Xueyi Guo, Feng Gao, Yingping Zou (2025) Advanced Materials (Article in journal)

Lingzhi Guo, Lunbi Wu, Huotian Zhang, Yiyang Pan, Xiaoming Li, Xiaobin Dong, Jingyi Kong, Min Hun Jee, Minqiang Mai, Sha Liu, Han Young Woo, Tao Jia, Zujin Zhao, Feng Gao, Zhen Wang, Yanming Sun (2025) Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Article PMID 370543 (Article in journal)

Xabier Rodriguez-martinez, Hongzheng Chen, Vida Turkovic, Feng Gao (2025) Advanced Energy Materials (Article in journal)

Coworkers

Two male scientists walks and talks in a hallway.

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 Staring Grant, Marie Sk艂odowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, VINNMER Fellowship.

He also values the exchange of ideas: he has sponsored members of his group in exchanges to Cambridge, Oxford and EPFL, and his group has hosted visiting students and scholars from Cambridge, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University, Nanjing Tech University, Shenzhen University, Queen Mary University of London, and more.

Coworkers

Gangadhar Banappanavar

Professor, Head of Unit

Associate Professor, Docent

Associate Professor, Docent

Associate Professor, Docent

Contact

Principal investigator

Organisation

Electronic and photonic materials (EFM)

Our division's research is focused on the development of organic electronics for energy conversion and storage.

Person with transmission electron microscope.

Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)

Excellent undergraduate teaching and research in the areas of biology, chemistry, materials and applied physics and theory and modelling are conducted at this department.

福利姬