Esma Ugur

Dr. Esma Ugur leads the Emmy Noether research group at LMU Munich, focusing on uncovering the fundamental origins of instability in metal halide perovskites and developing scientifically grounded strategies for durable, high-performance optoelectronic devices. Her research integrates advanced optical spectroscopy, structural analysis, and device engineering to establish structure–property–stability relationships in perovskite and perovskite-based tandem solar cells.

Dr. Ugur received her PhD from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in 2020. She subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at the KAUST Solar Center until the end of 2024, where she contributed to world-record perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell efficiencies and played a key role in advancing their performance and stability. In 2025, she joined LMU Munich as research associate and awarded the Emmy Noether Grant under DFG Emmy Noether Programme (Project No. 563861435).

Yifeng Zhao, Esma Ugur, Arsalan Razzaq, Thomas G Allen, Paul Procel Moya, Adi Prasetio, Imil F Imran, Cem Yilmaz, Rik Hooijer, Jian Huang, Katarina Kovačević, Yi Zheng, Luana Mazzarella, Erkan Aydin, Stefaan De Wolf, Olindo Isabella, Tuning the surface nanoroughness of the recombination junction for high-performance perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells. EES Solar 2026.

Esma Ugur, Universal strategy for passivation. Nature Energy 2025, 10,1048–1049.

Esma Ugur, Ahmed Ali Said, Pia Dally, Shanshan Zhang, Christopher E Petoukhoff, Diego Rosas-Villalva, Shynggys Zhumagali, Bumin K Yildirim, Arsalan Razzaq, Shruti Sarwade, Aren Yazmaciyan, Derya Baran, Frédéric Laquai, Caner Deger, Ilhan Yavuz, Thomas G Allen, Erkan Aydin, Stefaan De Wolf, Enhanced cation interaction in perovskites for efficient tandem solar cells with silicon, Science 2024, 385, 6708, 533-538.

Erkan Aydin, Thomas G. Allen, Michele De Bastiani, Arsalan Razzaq, Lujia Xu, Esma Ugur, Liu, J.; Stefaan De Wolf, Pathways toward commercial perovskite/silicon tandem photovoltaics. Science 2024, 383, 6679, eadh3849.

Erkan Aydin, Esma Ugur, Bumin K. Yildirim, Thomas G. Allen, Pia Dally, Arsalan Razzaq, Fangfang Cao, Lujia Xu, Badri Vishal, Aren Yazmaciyan, Ahmed A. Said, Shynggys Zhumagali, Randi Azmi, Maxime Babics, Andreas Fell, Chuanxiao Xiao & Stefaan De Wolf, Enhanced optoelectronic coupling for perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. Nature 2023, 623, 732–738.