Molecular Opto and Bio-Electronics Lab 

Semiconductors play an important role in our day to day life. The development in semiconductors technology has enabled management of our daily activities with a touch or a word from a person. The incredible power of semiconductor technology has been unravelled in the present situation during pandemic, where we were able to conduct our daily life without much interruption. This might not be possible without the fundamental and technological understanding of semiconductors since the development of semiconductor based devices from Bell Labs in 1953. Based on current challenges and aspirations of the humanity, more understanding about semiconductors, both in the fundamental and technological aspects is needed. Hence, there is a growing need to explore new materials, concepts, phenomena and more understanding of the physics and chemistry of semiconductors.

Silicon, being the most favoured semiconductor by the academic and industrial community, is difficult to replace. But the current status is due to last seven decades of efforts to understand the fundamentals and improvisation is foundry for developing high quality silicon for technological applications. But both academic and industry is in pursuit of alternatives due to its high energy processing techniques, limitation in extending to 3D electronics and toxicity involved in waste and processing chemicals. This has resulted in the development of new materials with elements in pure state and in combination with others like solution processable organic semiconductors and perovskite materials, quantum materials, 2D materials, etc. Miniaturization of electronic components to include more functionality in small space has resulted in many challenges as far as fundamental physics and chemistry of such systems is concerned. Different electrical and optical spectroscopic techniques, microscopy, transport studies and device physics which are used to understand the working mechanism of semiconductors need much more in-depth analysis and modifications to include phenomena involved on reduction in dimensionalities.

Our group focusses on solution processable semiconductors, understanding the physics and chemistry of such systems, designing of new devices/architectures, device physics and interface engineering. Our research work is primarily directed towards the photo induced free carrier generation, recombination and optoelectronic properties of devices made using organic, organic-inorganic hybrid, 2D, nano and quantum materials. We have been fabricating and understanding the photophysics of organic and perovskite solar cells, organic light emitting diodes, organic field effect transistors, and photodetectors. For understanding the device physics, we have been using various spectroscopic techniques like impedance spectroscopy, transient photovoltage and photocurrent spectroscopies and charge extraction by a linearly increasing voltage of photo-generated carriers (photo CELIV) technique.

Current Research

Organic Solar Cell​
Perovskite Solar Cells
Photodetectors
Light Emitting Diodes
2D Materials Based Optoelectronics
Field Effect Transistors

Recent publications

Enhancing the Efficiency and Stability of Perovskite Solar Cells through Defect Passivation and Controlled Crystal Growth Using Allantoin; Akhil Alexander, Vishnupriya P Kamalon, Vivek V Dev, Muhammed Raees A, Sidharth Reghunathan, Pradeep R Nair, Manoj AG Namboothiry; ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX

Controlling Lead Halide Residue in Perovskite Solar Cells: A Method to Improve the Photostability and Hysteresis; Nikhil Kalasariya, Akhil Alexander, Prithwish Kumar Bhunia, Emilio Gutierrez-Partida, Roshni Benny, Martin Stolterfoht, Manoj A. G. Namboothiry;  (2023)

Hydrophobic poly-TPD modified PEDOT PSS surface for improved and stable photovoltaic performance of MAPbI3 based p-i-n perovskite solar cells films as a model system; Akhil Alexander, Anitha B. Pillai, Vijith K. Pulikodan, Alvin Joseph, Muhammed Raees A, and Manoj A. G. Namboothiry; Journal of Applied Physics 134, 085002 (2023)

Sequential photoluminescence measurements to explore electron-trapping dynamics in slow photoresponse materials: Zinc oxide thin films as a model system; Muhammed Raees A, Akhil Alexander, Anitha B. Pillai, Vijith K. Pulikodan, Alvin Joseph, and Manoj A. G. Namboothiry; Phys. Rev. Applied 19, 064034 – 9 June 2023

Understanding bulk photovoltaic effect in type-II Weyl semimetal Td-WTe2 using polarization dependent photocurrent measurement; Albert Mathew, Vijith K P, Manoj A G Namboothiry; Appl. Phys. Lett. 121, 233102, 2022

News & Highlights

Junior Research Fellow

A Junior Research Fellow position is vacant in our lab.

Congratulations

Congratulations Dr. Manoj On Your Professorship

Congratulations

Mr Akhil Alexander and Ms Vishnupriya P K, published their work on ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.

Congratulations

Mr Nikhil Kalasariya, MSc Student, published his work on Solar RRL.

Congratulations

Ms. Roshni Benny for being selected as a Prime Minister Research Fellow.

Congratulations

Dr. Vijith K P for successfully defending thesis

Congratulations

Mr Akhil Alexander, PhD Scholar, published his work on Journal of Applied Physics.

Congratulations

Mr Muhammed Raees, PhD Scholar, published his work on Physical Review Applied.

Congratulations

Mr Albin Saj P, BSMS major student alumni, secured PhD position at University of Massachusetts, USA.

Congratulations

Mr. Jerin Chacko qualified Joint CSIR-UGC NET and JRF June-2023.

Congratulations

Congratulations Mr Akhil Alexander for best poster award in DST-VR International Conference, 2022.

Congratulations

Mr Albert Mathew, BSMS major student alumni, published his work on Applied Physics Letters.