Group Members
Principal Investigator
Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Dr. Mukesh Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Punjab, India. He has received his M.Tech. degree in Solid State Materials and Ph.D degree in Physics on the numerous aspects of nanomaterials growth and their applications as sensors from IIT Delhi. He worked at South Dakota State University, SD, USA (Feb 2010 – Dec 2011) to develop novel scanning probe microscopy facilities for nanoscale charge transport in organic solar cell and semiconductor materials. He has also worked (Dec 2011 – July 2013) at Colorado School of Mines and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, CO, USA for the development of reliable and flexible thin films for next generation flexible solar cells and cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. Before joining at IIT Ropar, Dr. Kumar was working for Hysitron Inc., MN, USA. He has received Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy Fellowship-2015 to work at South Dakota State University, USA; Young Scientist Research Award – 2015 by Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Gov. of India; DAE-Young Achiever Award-2019 by Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences, Gov. of India and Faculty Research and Innovation Award 2019 by IIT Ropar. Recently, he was awarded with prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowships-2020 to work at Syracuse University, NY, USA. He is also Editorial Board member of Nano Express, IOP. Dr. Kumar is a selected member of Indian National Young Academy of Sciences and The National Academy of Sciences India. He has published more than 60 research articles in peer reviewed journals. His research interests are focused on 2D materials, Thin Films, Nanostructures, Solar cells, and broadband Photodetectors.
Education
Ph.D., Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India (2010)
M. Tech., Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India (2005)
Work Experience
- Associate Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Ropar, Punjab, India (Jan 2020- Present)
- Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, IIT Ropar, Punjab, India (Dec 2013- Dec 2019)
- Application Engineer-II, Hysitron Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA (August 2013-Nov 2013)
- Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA (Dec 2011-August 2013)
- Post-doctoral Research Fellow, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA (Feb 2010- Dec 2011)
Post-Doctoral Fellows
Dr. Anupam Ghosh
Dr. Anupam Ghosh completed his M. Sc. (specialisation: Radiophysics and Electronics) and Ph. D. in Physics from the University of Burdwan and National Institute of Technology (NIT) Durgapur, respectively. He has qualified many National level examinations such as NET, GATE and JEST. He has joined the Functional and Renewable Energy Materials Laboratory (FREM Lab), Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar in 2021 as a post-doctoral research fellow. He has published 24 journal papers, attended many international/ national conferences and published reputed conference proceedings and book chapters.
Research Interests:
- Synthesis of nanomaterials, thin film (2-D) deposition, fabrication of nanowires/ nanorods (1-D), and quantum dots (0-D) using various bottom-up approaches including chemical synthesis and physical vapour deposition techniques.
- Fabrication of optoelectronic devices, memristors, biosensors, UV photodetectors, Schottky, heterojunction diodes, solar cells etc. using low dimensional systems.
Performance analysis of nanomaterials and semiconductor devices.
Ph.D Scholars
Kulwinder Kaur
Kulwinder Kaur is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. She received her M.Tech degree in Solid State Materials from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Before this, she has received M.sc (Hons.) Physics degree from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Research Interests:
CZTS solar cell fabrication
Combinatorial growth of CZTS absorber
Photon management in CZTS solar cell device
Email: kulwinder.kaur@iitrpr.ac.in
Nisika
Nisika is a Ph.D. scholar in the Department of Physics at IIT Ropar. She received her Master’s degree in physics from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra in 2015. She received her Bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2013.
Research Interests:
- Stack layer growth of CZTS absorber layer
Interface engineering in CZTS solar cell
To study the effect of doping in CZTS absorber
Email: nisika.physics@iitrpr.ac.in
Riya Wadhwa
Riya Wadhwa has joined as a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar in the year 2018. She has received her B.Sc and M.Sc degree from CCS University, Meerut.
Research Interests:
- Synthesis and characterization of 2D heterostructures
Optoelectronics application of 2D heterostructures
Email: 2017phz0006@iitrpr.ac.in
Damanpreet Kaur
Damanpreet Kaur has joined as a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar in the year 2019. She has completed her B.Sc.(Honours School) and M.Sc.(Honours School) degree from Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Research Interests:
- Solar blind photodetector
High performance sensors
Email: 2018phz0010@iitrpr.ac.in
Gaurav Bassi
Gaurav Bassi has recently joined as a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. He has completed his B.Sc. (Non-med) from SN College, Banga, district SBS Nagar, under Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar and M.Sc. (Physics) from SGGS (Sri Guru Gobind Singh) Khalsa College, Mahilpur, District Hoshiarpur under Punjab University, Chandigarh.
Research Interests:
- Growth and characterization of TMDCs especially PtSe2
NIR photodetector devices
Shivani
Shivani has recently joined as a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar. She has completed her B.Sc. from Hindu Girls College, Sonipat, Haryana in 2017 and M.Sc. (Physics) from Department of Physics, MDU, Rohtak, Haryana in 2019.
Research Interests:
Gallium oxide based power electronic devices
Puja
Puja has recently joined as a research scholar in the Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar in 2021. She has completed her B.Sc. from Gramin Mahila Mahavidyalaya , Sikar, under Rajasthan University and M.Sc. from Mody University of Science and Technology , Laxmangarh , Sikar, Rajasthan.
Research Interests:
Perovskite Solar Cells
Email: puja.21phz0001@iitrpr.ac.in
Master’s Student
Pralay Chanda
Solar-Blind Photodetectors
Samanwita Biswas
TMDCs based Photodetectors
Alumni
Dr. Naveen Kumar
Current Affiliation:- Post-Doctoral Fellow
Photoelectric and Energy Device Application Laboratory (PEDAL)
Department of Electrical Engineering
Incheon National University
119 Academy Rd. Yeonsu Incheon 22012, South Korea
Naveen Kumar joined the group in 2014 and played a pivotal role in the establishment of the lab. He received his doctoral degree in 2019 in the field of transparent conducting oxides.
Dr. Kanika Arora
Current Affiliation:- Post-Doctoral Fellow
Extreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory (XLab)
Aeronautics and Astronautics Department
Stanford University
Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
Kanika Arora joined the group in 2015 and helped establish wide-band gap semiconductors in the lab. She received her doctoral degree in 2021 in the field of gallium oxide based solar-blind photodetectors.
Dr. Abhay V. Agrawal
Current Affiliation:- Post-Doctoral Fellow
Department of Physics
Chalmers University of Technology
Gothenburg, Sweden
Abhay V. Agrawal joined the group in 2015 and helped establish 2D materials in the lab. He received his doctoral degree in 2021 in the field of MoS2 based gas sensors and photodetectors.
Mohit Sood
Mohit Sood was a Postgraduate student at IIT Ropar. He had joined the FREM group for his M.Sc project in the year 2016-2017. His prime area of research is earth-abundant Cu-Zn-Sn-S solar cells.
Currently, he is a research scholar at the University of Luxembourg. He is currently working in the area of photovoltaics.
