Dr Mukesh Kumar
Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Associate Professor
mkumar@iitrpr.ac.in
http://www.fremgroup.in/
206, TC

Biography

Dr. Mukesh Kumar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Punjab, India. In 2010, he earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi for his research on numerous aspects of transparent conducting oxide nanostructures. He then moved to South Dakota State University, SD, USA in Feb 2010 for his post-doctoral research where he worked to develop novel scanning probe microscopy facilities for nanoscale charge transport in organic solar cell materials. Since Dec 2011, Dr. Kumar was working with Colorado School of Mines and National Center for Photovoltaics, National Renewal Energy Laboratory, Colorado, 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., USA. Dr. Kumar has received many prestigious awards like Young Scientist Research Awards from Department of Atomic Energy; Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy Fellowship from Indo-US Science and Technology Forum; Young Achiever Award from Bhabha Atomic Research centre; Faculty Research and Innovation Award from IIT Ropar (Early career) and Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship from US-India Education Foundation. Dr. Kumar is also a member of Indian National Young Academy of Science and The National Academy of Sciences, India. 



Area of Research

Functional materials, solar cells photovoltaics

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 (Dec 2019- 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)

Other Information

  • Nature news India, January 2012: Research article published in Nature news “Rocket like Nanotube” http://www.nature.com/nindia/2012/120113/full/nindia.2012.2.html
  • Reviewer of Carbon, Elsevier; Nanotechnology, Institute of Physics; Reviewer of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Institute of Physics; Reviewer of Journal of Applied Physics, American Institute of Physics; Advanced Optical Materials, Wiley; Applied Physics Letters, American Institute of Physics
  • Life time member: Materials Research Society of India, Since 2014

Research

The supply of secure, clean, sustainable energy along with a clean environment is the most important scientific and technical challenge facing the 21st century. Functional and Renewable Energy Materials Laboratory, Department of Physics is working hard in the direction of Experimental Condensed Matter Physics to study the fundamental science of numerous materials for photovoltaic, broadband photodetectors and hazardous gas sensor. The group is focused to develop earth-abundant and cost-effective Cu-Zn-Sn-S solar cells by optimizing the secondary phases and interface engineering. Recently, the group has achieved a champion solar cell with a photoconversion efficiency of 6.1%. As an alternative and clean source of energy, hydrogen is an efficient source of energy and produces zero pollution when burned with oxygen or air. Nonetheless, hydrogen is explosive in nature when mixed with air even in a small concentration (4%). Hence, the fast detection of hydrogen gas well below the critical concentration is very crucial for the safety purpose of next-generation clean energy production and regulation. We are working to develop a fast and reliable hydrogen sensor. These sensors have potential applications for next-generation clean fuel hydrogen vehicles. The group is also focused to develop other hazardous gas sensors for environmental monitoring. Broadband photodetector has lots of applications. As sun emits a broad range of radiation including UV light which is at the same time important and dangerous for life on Earth, depending on its exact wavelength. We are working to develop 2D materials and its heterojunction based IR photodetector and gallium oxide-based UVC photodetectors for civil and military applications. 


Group Member

PhD students:

  • Kanika Arora
  • Abhay V. Agrawal
  • Kulwinder Kaur
  • Nisika
  • Riya Wadhwa
  • Damanpreet Kaur
  • Gaurav Bassi
  • Shivani Dahiya

Lab Facility

  • Multi-target sputtering 
  • Low temperature Hall measurement 
  • Thin film solar cells fabrication
  • EQE/IQE
  • Thermal CVD system 
  • Keithley 6430 and 4200

Publications

2. Enhanced adsorption sites in monolayer MoS2 pyramid structures for highly sensitive and fast hydrogen sensor
Abhay V. Agrawal, R. Kumar, G. Yang, J. Bao, M. Kumar, Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Int. J. Hydrogen Energy  2020, 45
4. Origin of enhanced carrier mobility and electrical conductivity in seed-layer assisted sputtered grown Al doped ZnO thin films
Naveen Kumar, A. H. Chowdhury, B. Bahrami, M. R. Khan, Q. Qiao, , Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Thin Solid Films 700, 137916
1. Flat-top laser beams over an extended range
A. N. K. Reddy, Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Prof. P. K. Raina, Dr. Pushpendra P. Singh, Dr. Rajesh V. Nair, Dr. Shankhadeep Chakrabortty, Dr. Sourav Bhattacharya, S. Mahler, A. A. Friesem, and N. Davidson
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1410, 012126 (2019)
2. ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy and its Relevance to Probe the Molecular Level Interactions between Amino Acids and Metal-Oxide Nanoparticles at Solid/Aqueous Interface
Deepak Tomar, Harpreet Kaur, Harsharan Kaur, Bhawna Rana, Krutika Talegaonkar, Vivek Maharana, Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Prof. P. K. Raina, Dr. Pushpendra P. Singh, Dr. Rajesh V. Nair, Dr. Shankhadeep Chakrabortty, Dr. Sourav Bhattacharya
Springer Book chapter as Proceeding of “Advances in Spectroscopy: Molecules to Materials”, Springer, Nature Publications 236, 3-21
1. Design of low surface roughness-low residual stress-high optoelectronic merit a-IZO thin films for flexible OLEDs
Naveen Kumar, T. M. Wilkinson, C. E. Packard , Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Journal of Applied Physics  119, 225303
2. Room temperature, air crystallized perovskite film for high performance solar cells
A. Dubey, A. Kantack, N. Adhikari, K. M. Reza, S. Venkatesan , Dr. Mukesh Kumar, D. Khatiwada, S. Darling, and Q. Qiao, 
Journal of Materials Chemistry A 4, 10231
3. Shelf life stability comparison in air for solution processed pristine PDPP3T polymer and doped spiro-OMeTAD as hole transport layer for perovskite solar cell
Ashish Dubey, Nirmal Adhikari, Swaminathan Venkatesan, Shaopeng Gu, Devendra Khatiwada, Qi Wang, Lal Mohammad , Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Q. Qiao, 
Data in Brief  7, 139
1. Strategic review of secondary phases, defects and defect-complexes in kesterite CZTS-Se solar cells
Dr. Mukesh Kumar, , A. Dubey, N. Adhikari, S. Venkatesan, and Q. Qiao, 
Energy & Environmental Science 8, 3134
2. Origin of photogenerated carrier recombination at metal - active layer interface in polymer solar cells
Dr. Mukesh Kumar,  A. Dubey, K. M. Reza, N. Adhikari, Q. Qiao, and V. Bommisetty, 
Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics 17, 27690
3. Interfacial Study To Suppress Charge Carrier Recombination for High Efficiency Perovskite Solar Cells
N. Adhikari, A. Dubey, D. Khatiwada, A. F. Mitul, Q. Wang, S. Venkatesan, A. Iefanova, J. Zai, X. Qian, Dr. Mukesh Kumar, and Q. Qiao, 
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces  7, 26445

Open Position

Teaching

  • Thin Film Science and Technology
  • Physics and Application of Nanomaterials
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Quantum Mechanics