Studentships Available - Advanced Device Concepts for Next-Generation Photovoltaics project - Deadline 8 January 2025

A number of fully funded studentship projects are available and will be associated with an exciting new EPSRC/UKRI-funded Programme Grant, a collaborative project (Advanced Device Concepts for Next-Generation Photovoltaics) that brings together expertise in photovoltaic materials synthesis and device fabrication, advanced characterisation and modelling. The ambition for this project is to carry out multidisciplinary research, via inter-linked work streams, that will explore and conceive four new photovoltaic device concepts and paradigms, enabling the next major step-change in photovoltaic efficiency. New devices architectures, concentrator PV, quantum cutting, hot-carrier collection and photon transport, will be explored and enabled by absorber materials based on metal-halide perovskites, silicon, and novel low-band-gap chalcogenide-halide semiconductors, supported by fundamental experimental characterisation and materials modelling. Addressing these future advanced concepts through a holistic approach will enable key scientific discoveries and important major technical advances enabling the next generation of PV technologies for beyond 2030. 

Applicants for DPhil studentships are invited to choose amongst projects focusing on the following areas:

  • Development of novel device architectures (Snaith group): Projects will focus on the development of multijunction devices and concentrator PV as well as the development of semiconductor materials and interlayers which enable these devices.
  • Design, synthesis and discovery of new inorganic semiconductors with new optoelectronic functionality (Snaith group): Projects will focus on the synthesis and processing of low band-gap chalcohalide semiconductors.

To be considered, applicants must apply for a “DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics” through the University’s online portal (DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics | University of Oxford) and state the above project title and supervisor on their application. The deadline is 8 January 2025.