Research Interests

Overview
My experience in materials research is diverse starting with development of silicon-based thin films and nanostructures for photovoltaics and light emitting devices.  In industry, I've worked on III-V multijunction solar cells for concentrated PV as well as new inorganic polycrystalline thin film development for solar energy conversion.  Additionally, I've helped develop ZnON films for thin-film transistors applications in active-matrix displays.  

Materials Synthesis
At WSU, we are starting to explore synthesis of polycrystalline and amorphous inorganic thin film materials through low-cost, high throughput techniques, which are necessary to drive eventual commercialization.  

Characterization
New materials cannot be developed without characterization to understand their structural and optoelectronic properties.  In the WSU physics department, we have several tools available for characterization:

• Energy dispersive x-ray diffraction (EDX)
• Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
• Ultra-violet - Visible photospectroscopy (UV-VIS)
• Nuclear quadrapole resonance (NQR)
• Cathodoluminescence
• Atomic Force Microscopy

Devices
While producing high quality absorber layer materials is key to photovoltaic development, their performance in semiconducting devices are critical to development.  We are interested in device interface physics and layer optimization for improved device performance.