This instrumentation will significantly accelerate Photo Activated Nanoscale System (PANS) and the Center for Advanced Photovoltics (CAP) research on converting solar energy into low-cost electricity, enhance the research and education activities of South Dakota State University?s Ph.D. program focused on photovoltaics, and aid South Dakota?s ability to attract top researchers and students to conduct leading-edge research. The research team will integrate this tool into several undergraduate and graduate courses to improve the quality of student education and research training. This tool is also expected to stimulate the economy by speeding up the development of new cost-effective photovoltaic technologies and the commercial production of a new instrument for nanoscale GHz transient measurement. This project will broaden participation in science and engineering research by actively involving female and Native American undergraduate and graduate students. The PI will encourage female students from his undergraduate and graduate classes to participate in this project and will work with tribal colleges to recruit the involvement of Native American students.
The objective of this MRI project is to develop a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope (AFM) based instrumentation integrated with bias modulated hardware to probe local charge carrier dynamics in nanostructured and disordered materials with high spatial and temporal resolution. This instrument will enable researchers to understand and quantify charge transport parameters in various organic semiconductors, inorganic nanostructures, and their hybrids. The integrated measurement system will probe charge carrier dynamics and map carrier density, transport/recombination lifetimes, diffusion length, mobility, and recombination rates with high spatial (nm) and temporal (sub-ìs) resolution in a wide variety of photovoltaic materials and devices based on a modified conductive AFM (C-AFM) scanner head integrated with modulated bias hardware (function generator, frequency response analyzer, and modulated laser sources).
