Praveen Kumar
TEM & AFM Manager
Dr. Kumar received his master’s degree in Solid State Materials from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, in 2013 and Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Tübingen, Germany, in 2018. After his Ph.D, he joined as a postdoctoral researcher from April 2018−2020 at CEA Grenoble, France, where he worked on the aberration-corrected TEM microscopes to investigate the structural characterization and aging mechanisms of Silicon-based anode materials for improved lithium-ion batteries within the framework of European Horizon 2020 Sintbat Project. From August 2020-2022, he was a research fellow in the school of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, UK. His current research focuses on the US-Ireland grant dedicated for the “Characterization of site controlled III-V quantum droplets for quantum computing applications” using the Advanced Electron Microscopy methods.
In the past years, he has contributed to various research projects in close collaboration with industry and academic partners, which led to a number of scientific publications and these collaborations still continue. He has authored over 28 scientific publications, several national and international conferences, invited talks and one patent. Dr Kumar is also extensively involved in the scientific community as a peer reviewer for highly acclaimed journals, for instance, Solar energy materials and solar cells, Journal of alloys and compounds, ACS applied materials and interfaces, Inorganic chemistry, Superlattice and Microstructures and others. He has gained expertise in the TEM sample preparation using the focused ion beam (FIB) lift-out technique and mechanical polishing in cross-sections and plan-views. Moreover, he has been serving (from June 2021) as an assistant supervisor (Volunteer role) to assist PhD students in the group of Dr. Miryam Arredondo, Queen’s University Belfast, UK.
His research interests centre on “characterization and understanding” of a wide range of energy materials, for instance, Li-ion batteries, Pt/Cu/CeO2 catalysis, Si solar cells, complex alloys and interfaces, semiconductor lasers, quantum dots, nanowires, metallic nanoparticles, superlattices, and PbSe thin films using STEM/TEM imaging and analysis techniques. He has a particular interest in (i) advanced STEM/TEM characterisation to unravel the crystallography, chemistry, defect density, interfaces, stoichiometry, and orientation relationship of nanomaterials down to atomic scale and its correlation with macroscopic properties, and (ii) in optimization of in situ TEM imaging methods for Liquid/gas experiments. His expertise also includes aging mechanisms, failure analysis, and growth optimization for industrial projects.
Publications
A full list of articles can be accessible through my Google Scholar and ResearchGate profile.
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