I am currently a Research Associate in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW Sydney.
Previously, I was a Research Fellow in the Centre of Excellence for Exciton Science (2021-2022, also at UNSW), and a postdoc in the Space Photovoltaics group run by Dr. Louise Hirst in the Materials and Physics departments of the University of Cambridge (2020-2021). Before that, I was a PhD student in the Experimental Solid State (EXSS) group in the Department of Physics at Imperial College London, funded by an EPSRC CASE award sponsored by IQE plc (2016-2020).
What I’m working on
Down-conversion of high-energy photons using singlet fission, to increase the efficiency of silicon solar cells.
Optical modelling using the transfer matrix method (TMM), ray tracing, and rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) to investigate the effectiveness of light-trapping structures.
Solar cell modelling: I contributed (mainly in the various optical solver modules) to the most recent version of Solcore, an integrated set of modules for solving common tasks in solar cell research. I also develop RayFlare, a comprehensive optical solver for solar cells and other semiconductor devices, incorporating wave optics and ray optics methods, and methods to combine these within a single structure.
What I Have Worked ON
I calculated efficiency limits for coloured multi-junction solar cells (with up to 6 junctions) with colour produced through the reflectance of incident light.
Ultra-thin solar cells are useful for space applications due to their increased radiation tolerance compared to standard devices. I developed light-trapping approaches for ultra-thin GaAs devices and generalised structures.
SiGeSn (silicon-germanium-tin), a new material system which can be used in for instance four-junction solar cells (in collaboration with IQE plc.). My work was mainly in material characterization, using photoreflectance (PR), photoluminescence (PL) measurements and ellipsometry, developing methods to analyse data and modelling of the optical and electronic properties of the material.
Before starting my PhD, I did an MSc at Imperial about renewable energy, and wrote a thesis project about my model for the effect of feed-in tariffs for domestic PV installations in Great Britain; my paper about this was published in Energy Policy, and my code is on GitHub.
I did my undergraduate and MSci physics degrees at Cambridge, and for my MSci thesis project I worked in the Optoelectronics and Quantum Matter groups at the Cavendish looking at light-induced instability in mixed-halide methylammonium-lead perovskites.