The theme of energy is crucial for addressing global environmental challenges. In this context, semiconductor technology plays a vital role in various modern applications, from consumer electronics to dvanced energy systems. Innovations in semiconductor devices, such as perovskite solar cells and memristive devices, offer significant potential for improving energy efficiency and sustainability.
- Perovskite solar cells are a promising alternative to silicon-based photovoltaics, with higher efficiency, easier fabrication, and greater versatility.
- Memristive devices are electronic components with a memory-dependent resistance which show great potential for low-energy consumption neuromorphic computing and data processing.
Accurate mathematical modeling and simulation are essential to fully harness these technologies, as experimental approaches are expensive and time-consuming. A common theme across this research is the drift-diffusion system, a set of partial differential equations fundamental to modeling charge transport in semiconductors. While this system has been studied and used for a long-time, these new applications (perovskite and memristors) bring additional complexities, partly due to the presence of mobile ions in the devices. This creates challenges related to multi-scale phenomena, nonlinear diffusion and mobility, and complex out-of-equilibrium boundary conditions, requiring novel mathematical and numerical approaches.
Advances in the understanding of charge transport with mobile ions would also benefit other energy-related areas both teams are working on, including ionic solutions for electric batteries and the corrosion of iron canisters used for nuclear waste storage. Moreover, related applications / models investigate how heterogeneous catalysis or ion channels may be used to improve the efficiency of carbon capture or renewable energy storage devices.
