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Highly Efficient Perovskite/CIGS Tandem Enabled by Modification of Band Profile of CIGS Bottom Cell

This study examined the potential of narrow-bandgap (Perovskite-based tandem solar cells are a promising photovoltaic (PV) technology to exceed the Shockley–Queisser limit of single-junction solar cells. Perovskite/Si tandem solar cells have been intensively studied, demonstrating a record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 34.6% [1]. In contrast, the certified record PCE of perovskite/Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) tandem solar cells remains 24.6% with a reported efficiency of 24.9% [1, 2]. Theoretical calculations for double-junction tandem solar cells using a detailed balance model indicate that the bandgap (Eg) combinations of 1.12 eV (for a bottom cell) and 1.70 eV (for a top cell) or 0.90 to 1.04 eV (for a bottom cell) and 1.58 to 1.67 eV (for a top cell) can yield a maximum theoretical tandem efficiency [3, 4]. Wide-bandgap perovskite (with Eg equal to or greater than 1.7 eV) has been actively studied for tandem application with Si (Eg = 1.12 eV), the most successful solar cell technology to date as a bottom cell. However, previous studies have shown that wide-bandgap perovskite suffers from substantial open-circuit voltage (VOC) loss due to halide segregation [5], and the maximum PCEs of single-junction perovskite cells have been produced by perovskite with Eg between 1.52 and 1.63 eV [6– 8]. The bandgap of CIGS can be tuned between 1.01 and 1.68 eV by adjusting the Ga/(Ga+In) (GGI) ratio and through tuning of bandgap grading profile [9]. Employing a narrow-bandgap CIGS close to 1.00 eV as a bottom cell is advantageous to use the most efficient, conventional bandgap perovskite as the top cell. Therefore, unlike Si, the bandgap tunability of CIGS offers an opportunity for perovskite/CIGS to attain a greater ultimate performance than perovskite/Si tandem solar cells. Han et al. [10] introduced a thick indium-doped tin oxide (ITO) recombination layer to bury the intrinsic surface roughness of CIGS, followed by chemical mechanical polishing to prepare a smooth surface for the subsequent solution process of perovskite, attaining a certified PCE of 22.4%. Albrecht and coworkers have improved the PCE of perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cells by modifying the hole transport layer (HTL). In their earlier work, a NiOx/PTAA bilayer was utilized to form a uniform HTL on CIGS bottom cells. Recently, a self-assembled monolayer such as 2PACz and Me-4PACz was used, which can enhance the device performance of single-junction perovskite solar cell and its perovskite/CIGS tandem counterpart, achieving a certified PCE of 24.2% [2, 11 – 13].

Most recent studies on perovskite/CIGS tandem solar cells have focused on optimizing the perovskite top cell. In contrast, all CIGS bottom cells include an absorber with a double-graded (DG) bandgap profile optimized around the bandgap of ~1.1 eV. The DG bandgap profile has been adapted primarily for CIGS absorbers prepared by thermal evaporation, which has resulted in high-performing CIGS solar cells with PCEs up to 23.4% [14], and it has proven to be an effective strategy for enhancing performance, optimized for “single-junction” CIGS; however, it has not been determined whether DG would be the ideal configuration for tandem applications. Kim et al. [15] used single-graded (SG) CIGS with a bandgap close to 1.0 eV, where the band grading is only formed on the backside of the absorber. They employed dual alkali post-deposition treatment (PDT) with KF and CsF, demonstrating a CIGS solar cell with a PCE of 20.

New CAR T treatment opens door for patients in need of kidney transplant

A pioneering clinical trial has successfully enabled two patients with end-stage kidney disease to receive previously improbable kidney transplants. These individuals were considered among the most difficult in the nation to match with a compatible donor kidney due to harmful antibodies they had developed (“sensitized”).

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) used chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, originally developed at Penn for treatment of blood cancer, to significantly reduce the level of harmful immune antibodies in these two highly sensitized patients, making kidney transplantation possible after years of waiting. The study’s findings appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This is the first demonstration that CAR T cells can be used not only to treat cancer, but also to help patients who previously had no opportunity to receive a compatible donor kidney,” said Ali Naji, MD, Ph.D., the Jonathan E. Rhoads Professor of Surgery and principal investigator of the study. “For patients who have spent years on the kidney transplant waiting list, this approach could be transformative.”

Beyond the brain: Organs help shape the nervous systems that control them

A new Yale study reveals that major organ systems in the body aren’t just passive structures operating on directions from command central—the brain—but instead are active participants in controlling their own functions.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Yale’s Rui Chang demonstrates how organs develop and maintain their own neural circuitry, which in turn communicates with the brain in a sort of two-way conversation.

The findings provide a new understanding of how the body and brain communicate via networks of neurons embedded inside organs that constitute a mini-nervous system, called “organ intrinsic nervous systems,” which help control critical functions such as digestion, heart rhythm, breathing, insulin secretion, and immune responses, the researchers say.

AI misses cancer drug target, revealing why lab validation still matters

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a previously hidden druggable site in a cancer-related protein that could open the door toward the development of a new generation of more precise cancer drugs. The finding also reveals important limitations in today’s artificial intelligence tools for drug discovery.

The study, published in the June 2 online issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, focused on PKMYT1, a type of protein known as a kinase that helps control how cells grow and divide. Because this process can go wrong in cancer, PKMYT1 has emerged as a promising target for new cancer drugs.

Most experimental drugs designed to block kinases work by targeting a region called the ATP-binding site—the part of the protein that uses the cell’s energy supply to function. But many kinases share nearly identical ATP-binding sites, making it difficult for drugs to distinguish between the desired target and other kinases, which can lead to unwanted side effects.

Novel prostate cancer treatment can reduce risk of disease progression by half, clinical trial shows

A Phase III clinical trial led by Neeraj Agarwal, MD, FASCO, senior director of clinical research at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah (the U), has found that a combination prostate cancer treatment could prevent the disease from progressing into a harder-to-treat form of cancer in select patients.

The study, TALAPRO-3 (NCT04821622), evaluated a combination of two drugs—talazoparib and enzalutamide—in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. This is a form of the disease that has spread beyond the prostate but remains susceptible to standard hormone therapy treatment.

The patients involved also had prostate cancer affected by certain gene mutations, including but not limited to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, that often signal more aggressive disease.

Life-changing benefits of hydroxyurea for sickle cell anemia affirmed by 10-year study

Fewer serious complications. Fewer hospitalizations and blood transfusions. Better growth and development. And a markedly lower risk of death from the complications of sickle cell anemia.

These are the benefits documented from 10 years of continuous hydroxyurea treatment provided in the NOHARM trial to a group of young children in Uganda, which has one of the world’s largest number of people living with the painful disorder known for causing sickle-shaped red blood cells. These improved outcomes were highlighted May 27, 2026, in a report published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Russell Ware, MD, Ph.D., director of the Division of Hematology and the Global Health Center at Cincinnati Children’s, was the lead author of the report. He has been working for years with researchers and clinicians across sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of low-cost hydroxyurea treatments.

Study Suggests Spacetime Can Crystallize Possibly Solving Several Mysteries

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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about crystallization of spacetime.
Links:
https://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1…
#science #physics #spacetime.

0:00 Can spacetime crystallize?
0:35 So what is this then?
1:55 Let’s define the main terms and phenomena: spacetime.
2:30 Crystals.
2:55 Spacetime crystal.
3:50 Previous challenges and propositions.
5:10 Main achievement in the study.
6:10 What does any of this mean for us?
7:10 Solving singularity and quantum gravity?
8:05 Explaining dark matter?
8:45 JWST observations.
9:28 Any proof? Gravitational waves!
11:55 Conclusions.

Enjoy and please subscribe.

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AI-Discovered Cognitive Models Reveal Novel Insights into Human and Animal Learning

The problem? Human brains (and animal brains, too) are incredibly complex. While these handcrafted models are great starting points, they often oversimplify things and miss the messy, rich reality of actual behavior. On the flip side, using powerful, flexible AI to analyze data can capture that richness, but AI usually gives us a “black box”—it finds patterns but can’t explain *why* or *how* it found them, leaving scientists to do the heavy lifting of figuring out the rules.

Scientific models are widely used across the natural sciences as an interface between scientific theories and empirical data [1]. Such models play a key role, for example, in the study of human and animal learning, where they express algorithmic hypotheses and relate them to psychology and neuroscience data [2, 3]. These models are traditionally handcrafted by expert researchers based on existing theory or new insights. Such handcrafted models, however, are now known to fall short of capturing the full richness of behavior, even in their narrow domains [4– 7]. An alternative data-driven approach has emerged, seeking to discover new insights by fitting and interpreting flexible models [8– 11]. However, these tools require substantial human effort to derive insight from data, and it has been unclear how to discover new ideas from data efficiently. Here, we present DataDIVER, a general approach for automatically discovering computational models from data, and demonstrate that these models surface novel mechanistic insights into human and animal learning. Our approach delivers models that take the form of short computer programs, which are optimized both to fit data well and to be simple. These programs explicitly connect with existing theoretical frameworks and are readily understandable by human scientists. They can also be used to make novel predictions, some of which we show are borne out in re-analysis of existing data. General-purpose tools for surfacing new ideas from data, especially in combination with the large datasets that are increasingly available in many fields, stand to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Blocking apoptosis promotes survival and alters developmental dynamics of human retinal ganglion cells in retinal organoids

Zhang et al. found that two waves of apoptosis occur in developing human retinas and retinal organoids, affecting RPCs and RGCs, respectively. Retinal organoids undergo an additional wave of necrosis in the core, further eliminating RGCs. Blocking apoptosis in organoids promotes RGC long-term survival and delays their neurogenesis and maturation.

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