Materials Discovery, Synthesis & Characterisation

One of our primary research focuses is halide perovskites, a highly promising class of materials for next-generation high-performance optoelectronic devices, including solar cells and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These materials challenge conventional understanding by exhibiting exceptional optoelectronic properties—such as strong light absorption and long charge-carrier diffusion lengths—despite having moderate defect densities. As a result, perovskite solar cells have achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) exceeding 25%. While remarkable progress has been made over the past decade, the widespread adoption of perovskite-based energy technologies requires major advances in material stability, long-term operational lifetime, and environmental sustainability. Developing non-toxic alternatives is also essential for enabling applications in wireless sensor networks, consumer electronics, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Our research explores scalable synthesis methods for a wide range of halide perovskites and other advanced semiconductors. We investigate their structural and optoelectronic properties, including thin-film morphology, compositional engineering, charge-carrier dynamics, and photon recycling. In addition, we utilize advanced synchrotron characterization techniques at the Diamond Light Source, including Grazing-Incidence Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (GIWAXS) and Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES), to gain deeper insights into semiconductor materials and device performance.