Lekhnath Bhusal - Postdoc
Lekhnath Bhusal received his undergraduate degrees from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Houston in Texas, where his advisor was Professor Alex Freundlich. In Houston, he developed a dilute nitride-based superlattice structure for applications in thermophotovoltaics. He has also worked to develop p-i-n solar cells based on quantum wells of dilute nitride GaAs(N), which holds the current world record of the highest open-circuit voltage in dilute nitride solar cells. He continued as a postdoctoral fellow and initiated a project to develop far infrared-sensitive, dilute nitride InSb-based detectors under a U.S. Air Force grant before joining the Solid State Spectroscopy Group at NREL in 2007.
Current Research Activities
Dr. Bhusal's research interests and activities include: optical spectroscopy of semiconducting materials and its application in improved and advanced PV devices; physics of isoelectronic doping and co-doping of III-V semiconductors for the development of very high efficiency PV devices; theoretical band structure (envelope function approximation based) calculation of III-V semiconductors; physics and modeling of PV devices (solar cells, detectors); and physics of tiling of birefringent materials.
Awards and Honors
- Phi Beta Delta, Delta Iota Chapter, nomination for high scholastic achievement as an international researcher at the University of Houston (2007)
- Graduate Student Research Achievement Award given by Sigma Xi, The International Scientific Research Society, University of Houston (2005)
- NASA Graduate Student Award for presentation at the Trends in Nanotechnology Conference, Salamanca, Spain (2003).
Selected Publications
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L. Bhusal and A. Freundlich, “GaAsN/InAsN superlattice based multijunction thermophotovoltaic devices.” J. Appl. Phys. 102, 074907 (2007).
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Freundlich, A. Fotkatzikis, L. Bhusal et al., “III–V dilute nitride-based multi-quantum well solar cell,” J. of Crystal Growth, 301–302, 993 (2007).
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L. Bhusal and A. Freundlich, “Band structure and absorption properties of GaAs1−xNx/InAs1−yNy short period superlattices strained to InP (001),” Phys. Rev. B 75, 075321 (2007).
Other Team Members
Lekhnath Bhusal |
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