Research | nano

Research Projects

Nanomaterials for green-energy technologies

Our research focuses on the realization of nanostructure-based solar cells, making them cheaper and more efficient. The overall goal is to tailor material properties such as energy-harvesting, non-reflecting, self-cleaning, and capable of integrating with current manufacturing procedures for constructing the next-generation energy devices.

Organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells
Quantum dot solar cells
Room-temperature thermoelectric devices
Water splitting for hydrogen generation

Semiconductor nanodevices

Semiconductor heterostructures are an emerging class of materials that represent the attractive building blocks for many applications. Our research focuses on the controlled synthesis, fabrication and characterization of nanostructures using a simple, inexpensive and reliable method. We aim to control their size, geometry, and understand the fundamental aspects of formation mechanism, and thus the material properties, to optimize its performance.

Optoelectronics: Phototransistor, photomemory
Photodetection
Semiconductor materials and devices
Stability evaluation of electronic devices

Optical metamaterials

Metamaterials composed of sub-wavelength metallic structures enable to guide the propagation of electromagnetic waves better than conventional materials. Aside from being used to tune wave propagations, metamaterial resonators are extensively used to detect the local change in the refractive index in the environment of a medium. Detection is performed by localizing the electromagnetic field of incident waves that surround metamaterial structures under resonant couplings, which allows to sense the extremely low concentration of target.

Chemical/biological sensors
Transparent electrode
Wide band absorber

Semiconductor processing

Metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE), a recently developed unique etching technique, allows the fabrication of extremely high aspect ratio semiconductor nanostructure arrays. We aim to study the influences of metallic catalysts, reactant concentrations, temperatures and intrinsic properties of semiconductors to build up a comprehensive three-dimensional (3D) processing capability for the advanced development of microelectronics such as CIS, 3DIC and other functional devices.

3D processing capability
Patterning and mechanism study
Heterostructure design

Lab Equipment

Analytic equipment

UV/Vis absorption spectrometer, Spectrophotometer, Optical microscope, Contact-angle measurement.

Simulation
Fabrication equipment

Hot plate, Furnace, Vacuum oven, Photochemical reactor, Vacuum filter, Ultrasonicator, RTA, Spin coater, Glove box.

Chemical and related equipment

Chemicals, pH meter, Centrifuge, Chemical hood.

Photo/Electric/Thermal measurement

AM 1.5 solar simulator, I-V measurement system, Four-probe resistance measurement, Electrochemical workstation, PL spectrometer, Seebeck measurement, Photoresponse measurement