Engineering inorganic-organic interfacial energy transfer

About the Project

Project Description

The School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) is widely regarded as the one of the leading Photovoltaics research hubs in the world. Building on its world-leading research, the school attracts leading international researchers in the area of photovoltaic, consistently ranked amongst the leaders worldwide in the photovoltaic field through international peer review. It is one of the nine schools within the Faculty of Engineering at University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia and grew out of the Australian Research Council Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence in response to the growing photovoltaic and renewable energy industry.

One of the frontiers in next generation optoelectronics is the fusion of organic and inorganic materials into hybrid devices which aim to combine the unique advantages of combining organic and inorganic systems to obtain technological advantages over conventional device architectures. Of particular importance is understanding the interfaces between such disparate systems, where ultrafast carrier/energy transfer processes and the role of triplets can dominate device operation. This project aims to develop and understand next generation organicinorganic optoelectronic devices. This project will be focused on developing and utilising a range of complementary ultrafast spectroscopic techniques to study charge and energy transfer across inorganic-organic heterointerfaces for photovoltaic and/or up-conversion applications. Prior knowledge of singlet fission down conversion and/or triplet-triplet annhilation upconversion is valuable.

The project will include:

1. Fabrication and characterisation of inorganic optoelectronic devices incorporating organic molecular layers
2. Steady-state and ultrafast optical characterisation of hybrid devices
3. Modelling of device performance

SPREEs Research Activities

UNSW has been responsible for developing the most successfully commercialised new photovoltaic technology internationally. Most of the solar cell technology that dominates the market (in particular the ‘PERC’ design) was invented and developed here. Currently there are a wide range of activities in the school spanning novel processing techniques for improved performance of commercial silicon cells, advanced characterisation techniques, integrating silicon with novel materials for the development of multi-junction solar cells, as well as advanced concepts for totally new approaches to photovoltaic and other energy producing device designs.

Requirements

Undergraduate Degree: Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Chemistry or Materials Science or similar. Overall GPA must be at least 80% or equivalent.

Masters Degree: Priority will be given for those who graduated from a Masters by research program, with a strong materials/chemistry/semiconductor physics emphasis, with a preference for experimental focus. Overall GPA must be at least 80% or equivalent.

Prior research experience is considered key for competitive scholarships for international students.

Please contact Dr Michael P Nielsen (michael.nielsen@unsw.edu.au) for further information or visit the group website https://www.aos-nielsen-group.com/. For your application please also attach the following documents: CV, academic transcript, and your motivation for doctoral studies. Please include how you feel your background potential aligns with the project.

Funding Notes

Suitable students will be awarded a full scholarship for 3.5 years (PhD duration in Australia is typically 3-4 years) via the competitive UNSW RTPi scholarship competition. The scholarship fully covers university fees and provides a stipend tocover living costs (currently ~ AUD $39,206 per year tax free). There is also a conference attendance allowance to support attending a scientific international conference during the PhD. Additional financial support may be available from success in competitive external funding rounds for exceptional candidates. For more information on Scholarships at UNSW, see View Website.

Additional country specific schemes for stipends include opportunities for Indian, Indonesian, Chinese, Vietnamese, German, Austrian, and Chilean students. For domestic Australian students in good standing, fully funded positions are readily available.