PhD in Optoelectronic Materials

Functieomschrijving

This PhD project, financed by the NWO Start Up grant (https://www.nwo.nl/en/news-and-events/news/2019/07/seven-researchers-in-physics-and-chemistry-to-receive-funding-in-final-start-up-round.html), focuses on the experimental realization and study of p-type transparent conductors following recent theoretical predictions. The work spans from in-depth studies of the fundamental material properties that leads to p-type conductivity and transparency -up to now being one of the
biggest challenges in optoelectronics-, to the implementation of the materials in solar cells. More specifically, the successful candidate will have the following tasks:

1. Thin film deposition by vacuum and non-vacuum methods (e.g. PLD, sputtering, chemical bath deposition) of oxide and chalcogenide materials.
2. Thin film structural, chemical, electrical and optical properties characterization (e.g. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), optical spectroscopy, Hall effect measurements, Seebeck coefficient measurements).
3. Development of combinatorial experiments and large data sets analysis routines for fast screening of promising material compositions. Use of materials databases such as The Materials Project (https://materialsproject.org ) is expected.
4. Participation in beamtime at synchrotron facilities for in-depth characterization of material properties, such as electronic structure of the materials and band dispersion.
5. Build structure-property relations that lead to the design and realization of p-type transparent materials and demonstrate their application in solar cells.

Functie-eisen