About the Project
A PhD project at Durham University is available in the design of new materials for novel renewable energy applications. Theoretical predictions will be experimentally synthesised and tested.
Photovoltaics rely on the separation of photoinduced charge carriers, which normally requires careful engineering of electron and hole attracting electrodes or p-n junctions, as in conventional solar cells. However, materials called ferroelectrics display a spontaneous polarisation that can induce spontaneous photocurrents, allowing for greater flexibility in photovoltaic device architectures. This spontaneous photocurrent may also allow ferroelectric photovoltaics to circumvent the Shockley-Queisser limit. Unfortunately, most ferroelectrics are poor absorbers of sunlight and poor conductors due to their relatively large optical band gaps. In addition, the polarisation of conventional ferroelectrics is unstable to charge carriers, and depolarisation fields, both of which are essential for spontaneous photocurrents. These key issues have prevented the “photoferroic" concept from receiving greater attention, despite over 40 years of research into the effect. This project will consider a novel strategy to bypass these issues by designing unconventional ferroelectrics, called improper ferroelectrics, which can have optimised optical band gaps and are more likely to be robust towards charge carriers and depolarising fields.
This research project – to design novel photoferroics for next generation photovoltaics - is interdisciplinary, providing the student with the opportunity to develop expertise in both theory and computation (quantum mechanical simulations based on density functional theory) and experimental techniques (materials synthesis, structural and properties measurements). The supervisory team has previously enjoyed success employing these combined approaches in related materials. The exact split between theory and experiment can be adapted to the student.
This project is part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Renewable Energy Northeast Universities Plus (ReNU+), a collaborative doctoral training programme run by the Universities of Northumbria, Newcastle and Durham. In addition to undertaking an individual scientific research project, doctoral candidates will engage with added value training opportunities, for example in business, innovation and internationalisation through a 4-year training programme that has been designed to maximise the benefits of a cohort approach to doctoral training.
Modes of study
Full time or Part Time at 0.6 Full Time Equivalent at Durham. (see note for international students)