Rakesh Pradhan

Biography

I am Rakesh Rosan Pradhan, born in Odisha, India. My inclination towards physics began during my bachelor’s degree. Under its excellent faculty and facilities, I got exposed to experimental and theoretical Physics. To pursue my research dreams, I joined the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IITJ), India for my Master of Science course in Physics. During this period, I attended an invited talk by prof. Udo (KAUST, Saudi Arabia), which influenced me to think about the fundamental research in material science using density functional theory. I visited KAUST as a VSRP fellow during the initial phase of the COVID pandemic. I liked the research environment and decided to continue my journey as a Ph.D. student. Currently, I am working in Kaust Solar Centre with Prof Stefaan De Wolf on single-junction perovskite Solar cell sing blade coating and slot-die methods.

Research Interests

Keywords: Perovskites single junction solar cell, interface study, density functional theory, Blade coating, Slot-die coating

I study solar cell-based different interface phenomena with the computational method and try to implement the idea by fabricating and characterizing devices. Using Density Functional Theory, I inspect suitable properties of organic-inorganic perovskites for photovoltaic applications. It involves compositional engineering to tune material properties, employing passivation to eliminate various defects, and studying charge carrier transport and recombination in the solar cell. Then I use theoretically screened suitable materials in fabricating single junction solar cells by blade coating and slot-die method.

Selected Publications

1. Hot Injection-Based Synthesized Colloidal CdSe Quantum Dots Embedded in Poly (4-vinylpyridine)(PVP) Matrix Form a Nanoscale Heterostructure for a High On–Off Ratio Memory-Switching Device. Pradhan, R.R., Bera, J., Betal, A., Dagar, P. and Sahu, S., 2021. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 13, 25064−25071.

2. Efficient and stable perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells through contact displacement by MgFx, .Liu, Jiang, Michele De Bastiani, Erkan Aydin, George T. Harrison, Yajun Gao, Rakesh R. Pradhan, Mathan K. Eswaran et al., Science 377, no. 6603 (2022): 302-306.

Education

MSc Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, 2017-2019

Professional Profile

Visiting Research Fellow, KAUST, 2019-2020

KAUST Affiliations

Computational Physics and Materials Science (CPMS)

KAUST Solar Centre (KSC)

Research Interests Keywords

Perovskites single junction solar cell Interface study Density functional theory Blade Coating Slot-die Coating