10 Abr Ivan Caño has been granted with an Erasmus+ scholarship to do a secondment at the University of Oxford
Ivan Caño has done an internship in Prof. Robert Hoye’s group, at the University of Oxford, during January and February 2024. He has also been granted with an Erasmus+ scholarship for this academic secondment.
Prof. Robert Hoye’s group is dedicated to develop a new generation of energy materials that can tolerate defects to achieve efficient performance when grown by cost-effective, scalable synthetic approaches. It is an interdisciplinary team, with interests spanning from creating new fundamental insights into carrier-matter interactions, to utilising their knowledge in controlling complex materials and interfaces to produce high-performing devices for clean energy conversion, including photovoltaics. In particular, they have devised a spectrum of solution- and vapour-based methods for synthesising high-quality nanocrystals, thin films and single crystals from novel materials.
The St. John’s College (Oxford)
During his stay in Oxford, Ivan has worked on different topics related to materials development for photovoltaic applications. He has learned new advanced spectroscopic technics to study the emerging chalcohalide materials (SbSeI, SbSI…), delving into electronic properties such as carrier lifetime and defect tolerance. Some characterization techniques are photoluminescence, TRPL and transient absorption spectroscopy.
He has also worked on sulphur kesterite (Cu2ZnSnS4) synthesis on superstrate configuration (grown on transparent FTO substrate), which represents a depart for current state-of-the-art in kesterite (essentially focused on high efficiency substrate devices), aiming at developing indoor-pv applications. These innovative applicated would be particularly interesting for the internet-of-things and extensive electrification of technology in the near future.
Overall, this internship at Oxford University has been an excellent scientific opportunity for Ivan, allowing him to learn about advanced characterization techniques, and also to apply his experience on materials synthesis to new applications. He has also met brilliant motivated young researchers from Hoye’s group, learning from their conversations and experiences. In his free time, he has visited cities and villages from southern England (London, Canterbury, Stonehenge, Bath), the vibrant cities of Edinburgh and Dublin, and he has explored many colleges in Oxford. Although he missed the richness of Mediterranean cuisine, he greatly enjoyed the opportunity to discover British culture from one of its most celebrated cradles, at the oldest university of the English-speaking world.
The Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory (Oxford)