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Raghu N. Bhattacharya - Team Leader

Photo of Raghu N. Bhattacharya
phone: 303-384-6477
email: Raghu.Bhattacharya@nrel.gov
At NREL since 1990

Dr. Raghu Bhattacharya is a Senior Scientist/Team Leader/Program Manager in the Basic Sciences Center. Dr. Bhattacharya and his team members have pioneered a unique processing approach using electrodeposition to prepare superconducting oxide films and buffer layers. Electrodeposition is a high-rate, cost-effective thick-film tape process. His team obtained a critical current density of 1.8 MA/cm2 at 75.2 K in 600 Gauss magnetic field for a YBCO superconductor using a nonvacuum electrodeposited buffer layer. This is a world-record critical current density (a measure of how much current a wire can carry divided by its cross-sectional area). This tape has the potential to offer lower cost and superior performance to alternative methods under development.

Dr. Bhattacharya also works in the area of thin-film photovoltaics, focusing on the semiconductor based on copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS). In collaboration with National Center for Photovotaics team members, he has fabricated a world-record (18.5%-efficient) thin-film solar cell using a unique ZnS(0,OH)/CIGS device structure with a single-layer, chemical-bath-deposited ZnS/(O,OH) buffer layer.

Education

1978–1982 Ph.D. in Semiconductor Thin Films at IIT Kharagpur, India
1978–1982 C.S.I.R. Fellowship
1976–1978 National Scholarship
1978 1978: 1st class 1st, M.S.
1976 1st class 1st, B.S.

Accomplishments

139+ publications
21 patents
Author of a book chapter

Selected Publications

  1. R.N. Bhattacharya, "Electrodeposition Process for Forming Superconducting Ceramics," U.S. Patent No. 5,550,104 (27 August 1996).
  2. R.N. Bhattacharya, W. Batchelor, H. Wiesner, K. Ramanathan, and R.N. Noufi, "Preparation of CuxInyGazSen (x=0-2, y=0-2, z=0-2, n= 0-3) Precursor Films and Powders by Electroless Deposition for Semiconductor Device Application," U.S. Patent No. 5,976,614 (2 November 1999).
  3. R.N. Bhattacharya, M.A. Contreras, and G. Teeter, "18.5% CIGS Device Using Single-Layer, Chemical-Bath-Deposited ZnS(O,OH)," Japanese Journal of Applied Physics 43, No. 11B, L1475–L1476 (2004).
  4. R.N. Bhattacharya, P. Spagnol, H. Miao, K. Marken, J.O. Willis, "Nanoparticle Incorporated Superconducting Bi-2212 Tapes," Physics Status Solidi (a) 201, No. 13, 2880–2885 (2004, Editor’s Choice Paper).
  5. R.N. Bhattacharya, W. Batchelor, J.F. Hiltner, and J.R. Sites, "Thin-film CuIn1-xGaxSe2 Photovoltaic Cells from Solution-Based Precursor Layers," Applied Physics Letters 75, 6 (10), (1999).
  6. R.N. Bhattacharya, H. Shen, P. Parayanthal, Fred H. Pollak, T. Coutts, and H. Aharoni, "Electroreflectance and Photoreflectance Study of the Space-Charge Region in Semiconductors: ITO/InP as a Model System," Physics Review B. 37, 4044 (1998).

NREL Publications

View NREL publications for this staff member.