PhD Student - Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices

Description of Group/Project:

The Advanced Electronic Materials and Devices (AEMD) group focuses on the material sciences and technology aspects of novel electronic materials, with a strong emphasis on graphene as well as other 2D materials (MoS2). The group also works towards the development of technological applications based on these materials such as electronics, bioelectronics and biosensing, neural interfaces, etc.

The activities cut across different scientific aspects, from the fundamentals (the physics of devices and semiconductors) to materials (growth of graphene and MoS2 materials by CVD and MOCVD, surface functionalisation, advanced characterisation), through to devices (fabrication technology, nanofabrication) and applications (neural implants and biomedical technologies, biosensors, flexible electronics).

Main Tasks and responsibilities:

The researcher's main role will be the development of energy autonomous neural interfaces. The researcher will be in charge of the microfabrication of energy harvesting devices based on triboelectricity (TENGs) and their characterization under different working conditions. Specifically, the researcher will focus on (1) development of clean room protocols for TENG fabrication, (2) morphological and electrical characterization of devices, (3) TENG coupling with neural interfaces study.

The research activity of the candidate will be framed within the project ERC-CoG TRIBOMED (G.A. 101125401) that aims to design and produce novel energy harvesting devices for the development of self-driven neural interfaces.