Clean Energy is fundamental to the reliable and sustainable development of economic and social fabric of our society. Our group is working in this direction by developing smart materials that can be applied in the area of clean energy conversion (photovoltaics), storage (solid state batteries) and savings (smart sensors and devices). 

Research Interests

Quantum Nanoelectronics: Quantum Transport, Resistive Switching, Memristors

Energy Harvesting and Storage: Solar Energy, Li-/Na- Ion Batteries, Supercapacitors

Low power resistive switching (RS) devices for sensors and neuromorphic electronics

The inspiration of this research comes from the Human brain, which utilizes just ~ 10-20 W of power for an enormous operation. Resistive switching (RS) devices are very promising to overcome many fundamental limitations of current CMOS technologies (based on Silicon) such as circuit complexity, scaling and power consumption. We are particularly interested in transparent metal-oxides known for their intertwined structural, electronic and magnetic properties due to an interplay between charge, spin, orbital, and lattice degree of freedoms. Especially, they show metal-insulator-transitions under the influence of electric field, current, magnetic fields, temperature and electromagnetic radiations. As the phase transitions between the insulating and conducting states can be extremely sharp and very sensitive, these materials are also excellent candidates for sensors and in-built functionality of information processing and storage. 

Transparent Electronics

Our primary interest in this area is to to develop transparent conducting and semiconducting materials for invisible circuits and different optical coatings for optoelectronic applications. Particularly, we are aiming some application demonstration of these coatings as energy saving smart windows, sensors, information processing and data storage elements that can be embedded on transparent substrates.

Locally probing and tuning the resistive states using EM radiations

Building on our expertise in the growth of various complex metal-oxides on thin Silicon Nitride membrane, we are trying to explore the opportunities to probe and tune the resistance locally using using electromagnetic rays and electron beam, which is otherwise restricted on thin films grown on thick substrates. 

Nanoscale Surface Wetting

We are interested on the wide range of super-hydrophobic thin films for self-cleaning coating that can also be applied on various surfaces to enhance it's functionality. Especially, we like to broaden the utility of conventional atomic force microscopy for probing of surface wettability at nanoscale. 

Openings

There are opening for PhD Scholars on university fellowships (Rs 40000/- per month for first two years and later 50,000/- pm based on the performance)  in the field of

• Nanoelectronics: Quantum Devices, Neuromorphic (Brain-like) Devices

• Energy: Micro- and Nano-batteries, Nanogenerators

Recent Publications related to the positions

• A. Rana, N. K. Sharma, S. Bera, A. Yadav, G. Gupta, A. Rana*, Tuning the plasmonic resonance in TiN refractory metal, accepted in Scientific Reports (2024) [Impact Factor (IF) ~ 5.0, Q1]   

• D. Khone, S. Kumar, M. Balal, S. R.  Barman, S. Kumar, A. Rana*, Resistive Switching and Battery-Like Characteristics in Highly Transparent Ta2O5/ITO Thin-Films, Scientific Reports 13, 14297 (2023) [IF ~ 5]  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40891-2

• Anchal Rana, Aditya Yadav, Govind Gupta, A. Rana*, Infrared Sensitive Mixed Phase of V7O16 and V2O5 Thin-Films, RSC Advances 13, 15334 (2023) [IF ~ 4] https://doi.org/10.1039/D3RA00752A 

• S. Yadav, A. S. Ghrera, A. Devi, A. Rana*, Crystalline flower-like Nickel Cobaltite nanosheets coated with amorphous Titanium Nitride layer as binder-free electrodes for supercapacitor application, Electrochimica Acta 437, 141526 (2023) [IF ~ 7.3]

• https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2022.141526

• S. Yadav, A. Rana, A. Sharma, Evaluating the Role of Current Collectors in Supercapacitor Electrodes with NiCo2O4 Nanospheres, J. Phys. Chem. Solid 178, 111347 (2023) [IF ~ 4.4] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2023.111347

• P T P Le, K Hofhuis, A. Rana, et. al., Tailoring Vanadium Dioxide Film Orientation Using Nanosheets: a Combined Microscopy, Diffraction, Transport, and Soft X-Ray in Transmission Study, Advanced Functional Materials, 30, 1900028 (2020)  [IF ~ 20.0] https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201900028 

• A. Rana, C. Li, G. Koster, H. Hilgenkamp, Resistive switching studies in VO2 thin films, Scientific Reports 10, 3293 (2020) [IF ~ 5] https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-60373-z 

Contact

Email: rana.abhimanyu@gmail.com