Dr Michael B Price

My research studies how new, functional materials interact with light, with the goal of designing and optimising these materials for sustainable technologies like photovoltaics. Please feel free to also visit my website https://www.pricelab.science/ for further details.

On a fundamental level, I seek to know what happens when a photon hits a semiconductor or molecule. Upon photoexcitation, a menagerie of excited states is formed. Excitons, electrons and holes are created with different energies, travel through a material, and then relax back to the ground state on timescales ranging from femtoseconds to milliseconds.  Understanding these processes and timescales allows us to rationally design better solar panels, LEDs, lasers and other useful devices.

My work sits at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science and device engineering. I am looking for Masters and PhD students with backgrounds in any of these areas, who are interested in working on any of the topics described below (or any other topics that may be of interest!). Please get in touch if you are interested, or want to hear more about different projects you could get involved in.

Organic semiconductors for semi-transparent photovoltaics

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have made incredible progress in the last five years, approaching a power conversion efficiency of 19% and counting. They are fantastic candidates for novel photovoltaic applications due to being easily processed, cheap, flexible, and having a tailorable absorption spectrum to optimise for semi-transparent solar windows. Their recent progress has largely been thanks to the development of what are called ‘fused ring electron acceptor’ (FREA) molecules. We have made key contributions to understanding intrinsic free charge generation and exciton transport in these materials, as well as in other novel organic semiconductors (see our paper published in Science in 2018). These studies help us in our goal of improving on what is called the ‘bulk heterojunction’ design of organic photovoltaics, and moving to simpler and better-optimised device architectures.  Currently, we have projects focussed on:

• Ultrafast spectroscopy to quantify intrinsic free charge generation and exciton transport in novel organic molecules.
• New materials development - in collaboration with synthetic chemists, we are modifying fused-ring electron acceptors to improve their photovoltaic properties.
• Novel device architectures for organic photovoltaics and photodetectors.

Metal halide perovskites, and hybrid organic-inorganic materials for lasing, spectral conversion and LEDs.

Metal halide perovskites have rapidly become one of the most studied semiconductors in the world since their demonstration of remarkable photovoltaic properties in 2011. We have been at the forefront of understanding their remarkable photovoltaic and light emitting properties – helping to demonstrate the first 3D perovskite LED, and optically-pumped perovskite laser. We continue to work on novel applications and photophysics of these and hybrid nanomaterials, particularly focussing on new types of microlasers, such as whispering gallery mode perovskite systems.

Spectroscopic methods

Ultrafast transient absorption is a powerful technique for studying photophysical processes on femto-milli-second timescales. We have made important innovations and modifications to improve how this technique can be used. Alongside other ultrafast and steady-state spectroscopies – such as optical-pump terahertz probe, and time-correlated single photon counting measurements– we continue to work to improve our non-invasive spectroscopic tools for quicker, and more detailed materials characterisation.  

Photochemistry for Direct Air Carbon Capture

In collaboration with Dr Paul Hume at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, we are working on new ways to directly extract carbon dioxide from ambient air. Our goal is to employ novel chemistry that will reduce the energy consumption required to achieve this with current technology. Our spectroscopic tools will help us understand the novel chemical processes occurring, and optimise our system to the point of commercial viability.

Biography
Dr Michael Beswick Price grew up in Timaru, New Zealand. He completed his undergraduate studies in physics at the University of Otago, and the University of California Berkeley, before doing his PhD under Professor Sir Richard Friend in the Optoelectronics group at the University of Cambridge, UK. His PhD research focused on the optical properties of lead halide perovskites. After his PhD, he worked for the non-governmental organisation, The Smart Villages Initiative, studying how to improve energy access in rural areas in developing countries, before doing a Postdoc in Cambridge on conjugated polymer nanowire photophysics. In 2018, he began at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, working alongside the ultrafast spectroscopy research group of Professor Justin Hodgkiss, and becoming a lecturer and Rutherford Discovery Fellow in 2022. He began his research at the University of Bristol in 2023 as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. His full list of publications can be found on Google Scholar.