Our research focuses on the optical and electronic properties of emerging semiconductors for low-cost, transformative electronics applications including photovoltaics for energy, LEDs for lighting and X-ray detectors for medical imaging. We use optical spectroscopy to understand material and device photophysics on a range of length and time scales, and relate these characteristics directly to local chemical, structural and morphological properties through multimodal measurements. This provides a unique platform to discover new semiconducting materials, unveil power loss mechanisms in devices, guide innovative device designs, and push device performance to the limits. Our developed devices and in-situ and operando imaging approaches are applicable to a range of fields including energy materials, medical imaging and biological systems. We also have a strong emphasis in the group on making our work accessible to the public through a number of outreach and media activities, and on equality, diversity and inclusion efforts.
HIGHLIGHTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
- Pan, L.; Dai, L.; Burton, O. J.; Chen, L.; Andrei, V.; Zhang, Y.; Ren, D.; Cheng, J.; Wu, L.; Frohna, K.; Abfalterer, A.; Yang, T. C-J.; Niu, W.; Xia, M.; Hofmann, S.; Dyson, P. J.; Reisner, E.; Sirringhaus, H.; *Luo, J.; *Hagfeldt, A.; *Grätzel, M.; *Stranks, S. D.; High carrier mobility along the [111] orientation in Cu2O photoelectrodes Nature 2024, 628, 765-770
- Ji, K.; Lin, W.; Sun, Y.; Cui, L.; Shamsi, J.; Chiang, Y-H.; Chen, J.; Tennyson, E. M.; Dai, L.; Li, Q.; Frohna, K.; Anaya, M.; Greenham, N. C.; *Stranks, S. D. Self-supervised Deep Learning for Tracking Degradation of Perovskite LEDs with Multispectral Imaging Nature Machine Intelligence 2023, 5, 1225–1235
- *Senanayak, S.P.; Dey, K.; Shivanna, R.; Li, W.; Ghosh, D.; Zhang, Y.; Roose, B.; Zelewski, S. J.; Andaji-Garmaroudi, Z.; Wood, W.; Tiwale, N.; MacManus-Driscoll, J. L.; Friend, R. H.; *Stranks, S. D.; *Sirringhaus, H. Charge transport in mixed metal halide perovskite semiconductors. Nature Materials 2023, 22, 216–224
- Cho, C.; Feldmann, S.; Yeom, K. M.; Jang, Y-W.; Kahmann, S.; Huang, J-Y.; Yang, T. C-J.; Khayyat, M. N. T.; Wu, Y-R.; Choi, M.; Noh, J. H.; Stranks, S.; *Greenham, N. C. Efficient vertical charge transport in polycrystalline halide perovskites revealed by four-dimensional tracking of charge carriers. Nature Materials 2022, 21, 1388–1395
- Macpherson, S.; Doherty, T. A. S.; Winchester, A. J.; Kosar, S.; Johnstone, D. N.; Chiang, Y.-H.; Galkowski, K.; Anaya, M.; Frohna, K.; Iqbal, A. N.; Nagane, S.; Roose, B.; Andaji-Garmaroudi, Z.; Orr, K. W. P.; Parker, J. E.; Midgley, P. A.; *Dani, K. M.; *Stranks, S. D. Local nanoscale phase impurities are degradation sites in halide perovskites Nature 2022, 607, 294-300
- Frohna, K.; *Anaya, M.; Macpherson, S.; Sung, J.; Doherty, T. A. S.; Chiang, Y.-H.; Winchester, A. J.; Orr, K. W. P.; Parker, J. E.; Quinn, P. D.; Dani, K. M.; Rao, A.; *Stranks, S. D. Nanoscale chemical heterogeneity dominates the optoelectronic response of alloyed perovskite solar cells Nature Nanotechnology 2022, 17, 190–196
- Doherty, T. A. S.; Nagane, S.; Kubicki, D. J.; Jung, Y.-K.; Johnstone, D. N. ; Iqbal, A. N.; Guo, D.; Frohna, K.; Danaie, M.; Tennyson, E. M.; Macpherson, S.; Abfalterer, A.; Anaya, M.; Chiang, Y.-H.; Crout, P.; Ruggeri, F. S.; Collins, S.; Grey, C. P.; Walsh, A.; Midgley, P. A.; *Stranks, S. D. Stabilized tilted-octahedra halide perovskites inhibit local formation of performance-limiting phases Science 2021, 374(6575), 1598-1605
SELECTED RECENT MEDIA:
- Sam Stranks interviewed on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire to discuss making solar cells from berries at the Cambridge Festival, and the group's research (March 2023)
- Fuel from the Sun Competition - Team reaches EU ‘Fuel from the Sun’ Final with artificial leaves capable of producing a sustainable solar fuel (December 2022)
- The search for perovskite durability- Sam and Swift Solar featured in an article in Nature (September 2022)
- Energy Unplugged podcast - A conversation between Sam Stranks and Aurora Energy founder John Feddersen about PV and research (April 2022)
- How a new solar and lighting technology could propel a renewable energy transformation - Article in The Conversation by Sam (September 2020)
- Fast Nanoscale ‘Movies’ Shed Light on a Solar Cell Mystery - Article in WIRED about our article in Nature (April 2020)
- Interview with Sam Stranks about Perovskite based technologies' - Interview with Sam as featured on the Amp Hour Electronics podcast (March 2019)
We acknowledge generous support from the European Research Council (HYPERION), the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Faraday Institute, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Commission.