Thermoradiative Power Generation (or Solar Power at Night)

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.

The thermoradiative diode is a new optoelectronic concept that can perform emissive energy harvesting from the imbalance of thermal radiation between it and its environment. Emissive energy harvesting allows for generating power at night by taking advantage of the earth’s radiative emission into the coldness of space. Opportunities in developing thermoradiative diodes for "night time solar" include engineering and fabricating new III-V devices. This concept has been recently popularised in the media a,b.

Interested candidates should read our previous publications on the topic 1,2,3,4 and must have prior experience with III-V optoelectronics. Cleanroom experience in device fabrication is desired.

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 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 semiconductor physics emphasis, can be theoretical or experimental focused. 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 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.