PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2015
Energy for Light
| Technion Prof. Gitty Frey. |
Whole new concepts in domestic and industrial lighting, limited only by the breadth of the designer’s imagination could be making the “idea!” light bulb seen above the head in cartoon strips an icon of the past. But new concepts for emitting light is just one possible future application of the research done by Prof. Gitti Frey at the Faculty of Materials Engineering; new ways of receiving light – such as vastly improved systems for harnessing solar power is another.
Born in the US and growing up in Israel, Gitti Frey, recruited to Technion in 2002 as a Landau Fellow in the prestigious Leaders in Science and Technology Program, specializes in organic electronics – plastic electronics that are functional electronically and optically. They emit light and can transmit electrical signals, or absorb light and generate energy such as electricity. Frey introduces whole new properties in this field, creating the most effective and useful self-organizing structures on the nano-scale. “Their functionality is not only due to chemical properties, but to the organization – the hierarchy, ” explains Frey. “In the nano dimension, we can only achieve order through self-direction. We self-organize organic and inorganic components into hierarchies applicable in optoelectronic devices – the outcome is a light emitting diode (or a solar cell).”
Such a diode injects electricity and emits light – giving futuristic lighting with high color tunability, that promises to be more efficient, brighter, and using a lower voltage. Digital cameras often use such organic light-emitting diodes, explains Frey: “A whole new concept in lighting is coming… it is a general revolution, geared by a combination of materials engineering people working at the nano-scale and designers.”
And the reverse process is equally fascinating for Frey, who is also working on a solar cell to convert sunlight into electrical energy. She predicts this research will lead to solar-power systems which are cheaper, unbreakable, flexible, more aesthetic and versatile. “We ask ourselves the fundamental questions about the conditions needed to self-organize a structure so we can generate currents in a specific material… we ask the fundamental scientific questions and the devices are the outcome…”
Frey explains that the nature of her research makes it hard to fit into one discipline and the existence of multidisciplinary centers like GTEP what makes such groundbreaking research possible at the Technion. “We require different experimental tools from different departments: X-ray scattering in chemical engineering; the surface analysis lab in the Solid State Institute; high-resolution electron microscopy in Materials Engineering … Technion’s ability to evolve multidisciplinary structures based on scientific need brings a serious advantage in developing research.”