Harald Ade

Bio

A graduate of Stony Brook University, H. Ade has been a faculty member at NCSU since Nov. 1992, rising through the ranks to Full Professor by 2001, and been named Distinguished Professor of Physics in 2014 and Goodnight Innovation Distinguished Professor in 2017. He has had an active and continually funded research program (~$14,500,000 total) and served as Director of Graduate Program in Physics from 2006-2013. Recognitions include R&D100 Award, NSF Young Investigator Award, APS Fellow, AAAS Fellow, (NCSU) Alumni Outstanding Research Award, K. F. J. Heinrich Award, and Shirley Price for Outstanding Science and Halbach Award of Innovative Instrumentation (both at the Advanced Light Source). He is a 2017 and 2018 Clarivate Analytics WoS Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science.

His most distinguished external engagements include serving on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Advanced Light Source (2011- present) and the BESSY-II Synchrotron Facility in Berlin, Germany (2006-2009), as well as the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholz Zentrum Berlin, Germany (2009 – 2012).

Area(s) of Expertise

Prof. Ade developed a number of novel instruments and characterization methods, which include Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) microscopy, X-ray linear dichroism microscopy, X-ray photoemission microscopy, resonant x-ray reflectivity and resonant soft x-ray scattering (R-SoXS). Their applications focus primarily on determining the composition, morphology and structure of polymeric and organic electronic materials at the sub-micron spatial scale. R-SoXS has become a method de rigueur for the characterization of organic photovoltaic devices, as it affords high scattering contrast, sensitivity to molecular orientation, and a q-range that matches important lengths-scale of the device morphology. Instrumentation advanced in x-ray microscopy have lead to a commercial instrument by Accel (now Bruker).

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Publications

• Exceptional Alignment in a Donor-Acceptor Conjugated Polymer via a Previously Unobserved Liquid Crystal Mesophase , ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS (2024)
• Modification of the Electron-Deficient Core on Unfused-Ring Acceptors Enabling High Open-Circuit Voltage of Organic Solar Cells , SOLAR RRL (2024)
• Optimized Incorporation of Furan into Diketopyrrolopyrrole-Based Conjugated Polymers for Organic Field-Effect Transistors , CHEMSUSCHEM (2024)
• Quantifying Doping Efficiency to Probe the Effects of Nanoscale Morphology and Solvent Swelling in Molecular Doping of Conjugated Polymers , JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C (2024)
• The role of interfacial donor-acceptor percolation in efficient and stable all-polymer solar cells , NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2024)
• A materials physics perspective on structure–processing–function relations in blends of organic semiconductors , Nature Reviews Materials (2023)
• Additive-free molecular acceptor organic solar cells processed from a biorenewable solvent approaching 15% efficiency , MATERIALS HORIZONS (2023)
• Auxiliary sequential deposition enables 19%-efficiency organic solar cells processed from halogen-free solvents , NATURE COMMUNICATIONS (2023)
• Control of Host-Matrix Morphology Enables Efficient Deep-Blue Organic Light-Emitting Devices , ADVANCED MATERIALS (2023)
• Emergent molecular traits of lettuce and tomato grown under wavelength-selective solar cells , FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE (2023)