I got 1%!

Research is a long hard road, paved with blood, sweat and tears. I still remembered my first solar cell, with 0.08% efficiency. That is absymal, compared with 1.6% that others have done with the same materials, or 6.5% for the record organic solar cell efficiency.

Soon after, with some improvements, I got 0.65%. But that became a brick wall, and it was not before long that my efficiencies went back to 0.40%, for inexplicable reasons. All I targeted then was to get 1%. But I seemed to have been stuck in a hole.

George told me that we just need to focus on proof of principle, rather than going all out to break efficiency records. And then I met Prof Tang, who gave me a sound piece of advice - rather than blindly focusing on efficiencies, I can do a good PhD just by looking at solar cell mechanisms and stability.

So I did. I decided to forget about efficiencies for a while, and go study energy transfer in solar cells. And you really do not need your cells to work all that well for that project. So life was easier, in a way.

But who can give up the dream of high efficiency? It is, after all, the ultimate goal, and what everyone else is concerned about. So I went back to it, like a stubborn child. And with increased knowledge and expertise, I finally got 1.28%... after 1 year. Not too bad in my humble opinion.

Can I publish, though? I still have to worry about that, and how I can best present my data. But breaking the 1% is almost like a childhood dream. More symbolic than anything else, I suppose.

Science, impactless paper or impactful paper

A visitor from Hong Kong working in my lab now is impressed that our group has published a Science paper last year. To him, a Science or Nature paper seems like an end in itself. Once you have a Science or Nature paper, you are somebody. You have "made it".

However, a post-doc in my group, also from Hong Kong, holds the opinion that many Science and Nature papers are "useless". And in a way, it is true. Many papers get into these journals because they describe a novel idea or technique. And it may be just that - novel, but not very useful or practical. Hence the impact is limited.

On the other hand, there are some papers published in lesser journals like Applied Physics Letters, but have nevertheless made a huge impact. The first paper on the bilayer organic solar cell, for instance, was published in APL, but it now has over 600 citations. It is fair to say that it kickstarted the entire field of organic solar cells.

So while I still do dream of the Science or Nature paper, I think I will rather focus my attention now on getting something "useful", or just something at all. And I am not ashamed to say that APL is my favorite journal. It has got a wide readership, and it is the main platform for organic electronics. Not to mention that at this point in my scientific career, the priority is still more papers, rather than high quality papers. I think all 3 of us share the same view - as a grad student, first try to get 2-3 papers out, before focusing on quality. We need to graduate. Good luck to us all.