Condensed matter: electronic structure

This project aims to develop new transparent conducting materials for optoelectronic applications on glass. Currently used fluorine doped tin oxide is approaching its technological limitations and new materials are required to maintain the pace of efficiency and performance improvements in thin film PV devices, energy saving glazing and electronic displays and lighting. Strongly correlated electron systems are the main focus in this research because of their low plasma frequencies, resulting in the reflection edge of such materials to be shifted to lower energies, therefore enhancing the transmission in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The student will use pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to prepare high quality films of new transparent conducting materials on single crystal and glass substrates for characterisation and property measurements. Further development will employ other thin film deposition methods suitable for large-scale production on glass substrates e.g. chemical vapour deposition, magnetron sputtering, spray pyrolysis etc. in collaboration with NSG Group and will require use of the laboratories at the NSG Group Technical Centre at Lathom, Lancashire. There are extensive opportunities to use synchrotron X-ray and neutron scattering facilities.