The goals of our research are to understand the interfaces between electronic materials, to develop new processing for advanced nanolayer materials, and to apply them to new and improved electronic, optical, electrochemical, and computing devices.
Applied interface materials are crucial to the operation of all electron devices. As sizes shrink, charge transport primarily occurs at materials interfaces, and the interface properties become the limiting factor governing device operation. We focus on the transport of electronic and ionic charges at and across interfaces, which are fundamental to the operation of most devices, from solar cells to transistors and ML microchips.
Our research is supported through grants and funding from both the private and public sector, primarily from UK Research and Innovation. This financial backing allows our team to procure state-of-the-art equipment, hire skilled researchers, and pursue innovative projects that push the boundaries of electronic materials. There is a whole new area of science and engineering based on advanced interface materials for applied optoelectronic and energy devices, and we are working to be at the leading edge of these innovations.
Find out more about our recent work by looking at the Publications and Conference Presentations pages.
Strengths and Themes
Our group has built unique strengths in:
- Developing new techniques to enable deep understanding of charge dynamics across interfaces in electronic materials,
- Harnessing new functions in nanolayer materials for improved electronic interfaces,
- Enabling the design and engineering of improved device architectures.
Our research programme is split into four main areas of research centred around the understanding and exploitation of nano-electronic material interfaces.
- Semiconductor interfaces
- Metals and conductors
- Transparent electrodes
- Electrochemical Ionic Nanolayers
These research themes target applications on Tandem Photovoltaics and Energy-Efficient Computing Devices. Overall, our work seeks to improve the performance of solar cells and opto/nano electronic devices, to reduce the cost and exploit new materials manufacturing for sustainable energy systems, and to provide solutions in energy-efficient high-performance computing through quantum and neuromorphic technologies.
The best-established area of our work is dedicated to improving the efficiency of next-generation solar energy devices, which will be central to our zero-carbon future. New and developing work on computing devices is growing in response to the vast amount of electricity being spent on computing.
Altogether, we cover a breadth of expertise in semiconductors and solid-state physics, the processing and manufacture of photovoltaic cells, the science of functional dielectrics, and the materials interfaces essential to new electronic devices.
