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.
Important Notice
Current Research
Recent publications
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
Acetylammonium chloride as an additive for crystallization control and defect passivation in MAPbI3 based perovskite solar cells; Akhil Alexander, Varun Srivastava, Poovannan Ravichandran, KP Vijith, B Anitha, Alvin Joseph, Manoj AG Namboothiry; Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 55 265501, 2022
Solution-Processed Self-Powered Panchromatic Organic Photodiode and Its Application in Biomedical Devices; Alvin Joseph, Anitha B Pillai, Vijith K Pulikodan, Akhil Alexander, Raees Muhammed, Manoj AG Namboothiry, , ACS Appl. Electron. Mater. 2022, 4, 4, 1567-1575
Flexible thin-film photodetectors based on solution-processed molybdenum disulphide nanosheets; Vijith K Pulikodan, Raees Muhammed, Alvin Joseph, Akhil Alexander, B Anitha, Manoj AG Namboothiry; Journal of Materials Research 37, 6, 1246-1255
Impedance spectroscopy study of defect/ion mediated electric field and its effect on the photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cells based on different active layers; V Srivastava, A Alexander, B Anitha, MAG Namboothiry; Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells 237, 111548
Charge carrier dynamics and photovoltaic properties of near-infrared absorbing squaraine incorporated solution-processed additive-free PTB7: PCBM based ternary solar cells; B Anitha, A Joseph, A Alexander, KP Vijith, S Varun, MAG Namboothiry; Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 55 (12), 125301
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, 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. Jerin Chacko qualified Joint CSIR-UGC NET and JRF June-2023.

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

Congratulations
Congratulations dear BSMS major students for your graduation.

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.

