Dr. Matthew C. Beard serves as the director of the Center for Hybrid Organic Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Office of Science with the U.S. Department of Energy.  CHOISE’s mission is to form a cohesive center-wide effort to accelerate discovery and elucidate design principles for unprecedented control over emergent properties involving spin, charge, and light-matter interactions, leading to new energy-efficient advanced technologies. Dr. Beard is also funded through the Solar Photochemistry program within the Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. He is developing novel quantum dot systems for solar energy harvesting and conversion and spectroscopic probes of charge-carrier dynamics.

Research Interests

Quantum-confined semiconductor nanocrystals for solar energy conversion

Ultrafast spectroscopy of carrier dynamics in solar photoconversion schemes

Non-contact probes of carrier dynamics and charge transport

Novel quantum materials for energy technologies

Education

Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, Yale University

M.S. Physical Chemistry, Brigham Young University

B.S. Physical Chemistry, Brigham Young University

Featured Work

Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity Enabling a Room-Temperature Spin Light-Emitting Diode, Science (2021)

Spin Dependent Charge Transport through 2D Chiral hybrid Lead-Iodide Perovskites, Sci. Adv. (2019)

Enhanced Multiple Exciton Generation in PbS/CdS Janus-like Heterostructure Nanocrystals, ACS Nano (2018)

Tuning Colloidal Quantum Dot Band Edge Positions Through Solution-Phase Surface Chemistry Modification, Nature Communications (2017)

Multiple Exciton Generation for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution Reactions With Quantum Yields Exceeding 100%, Nature Energy (2017)

Top and Bottom Surfaces Limit Carrier Lifetime in Lead Iodide Perovskite Films, Nature Energy (2017)

Status and Prognosis of Future Generation Photoconversion to Photovoltaics and Solar Fuels, ACS Energy Lett. (2016)

Observation of a Hot-Phonon Bottleneck in Lead Iodide Perovskites, Nature Photonics (2016)

Semiconductor Interfacial Carrier Dynamics via Photo-Induced Electric Fields, Science (2015)

Promise and Challenge of Nanostructured Solar Cells, Nature Nanotechnology (2014)

Peak External Photocurrent Quantum Efficiency Exceeding 100% Via Meg in a Quantum Dot Solar Cell, Science (2011)