Perovskite solar cells have established their place as one of the most exciting solar cell technologies currently under investigation. The efficiency of solar cells based on perovskites has rapidly increased from an initial promising value of 9% in 2012 to over 22% currently, making this the fastest-advancing solar cell technology. The impressive increase in efficiency has led to an enormous surge in interest. Despite the great potential, perovskite solar cell technology is still in the early stages of commercialization because of remaining problems: long term stability, scalability and toxicity of lead, present in the best performing cells. Since the materials and device fabrication are still relatively new, there is great opportunity for further research towards increasing efficiency and stability, prolonging lifetime and replacing toxic materials with safer ones. The PIs have developed efficient and accurate DFT (www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14435-4) and Monte Carlo methods (Nature Materials 12, 652 (2013).), which are ideally suited to study the thermodynamics, electronic structure and photophysics of perovskite materials and perovskite solar cells. 

In this context, a PhD project on 'Modelling of Perovskite Solar Cells' is defined within the joint initiative 'Storing Solar Energy' of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the Dutch Institute For Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER, www.differ.nl). Your tasks as a PhD student will involve: (i) computational modelling of the stability of perovskites; (ii) computational exploration of lead-free perovskites; (iii) modelling of the photophysics of perovskite solar cells. You will be a member of the Centre for Computational Energy Research (CCER, www.ccer.nl), which has been founded by TU/e and DIFFER in 2017. Your work place will be in the DIFFER building on the TU/e campus, while your formal appointment will be within the Department of Applied Physics at the TU/e. You will intensively interact with other computational scientists at the CCER and experimental researchers at DIFFER. You will intensively collaborate with experimental researchers in the field of perovskite solar cells in the group Molecular Materials and Nanosystems (M2N, www.m2ngroup.nl) at the TU/e lead by Prof.dr. René Janssen.

You are excited to contributing to a breakthrough in the area of renewable energy. You have an MSc in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science or Mathematics, with strong theoretical and/or computational skills. You have good communication skills and good command of English. Preferably, you have followed courses in Quantum Physics, Statistical Physics, Quantum Chemistry and/or Computational Physics.

We offer:

An exciting job in a stimulating environment at the CCER, with colleagues who have ample expertise with a broad range of computational techniques;

A dynamic environment oriented on fundamental science with a technological perspective;

A full-time appointment for four years with a gross monthly salary growing from € 2222 (first year) to € 2840 fourth year), in line with the Collective Agreement for Dutch Universities;

Additionally, 8% holiday and 8.3% end-of-year annual supplements;

An attractive package of fringe benefits, i.e., a personal development programme for PhD students, excellent sport facilities and the possibility of child care on the campus.