Research Facilities
RESEARCH FACILITIES
Currently the Physics Department offers the following research facilities:
- The Materials Physics Lab
- The Computational Physics Lab
- The Electronics Lab (comment:
Materials physics lab
The Materials Physics Lab is located at the Physical Sciences Complex in the wing adjacent to Physics Building .
Lab Leader: Dr. Tabitha A. Amollo
Vision
To be a regional research hub for developing cutting-edge nanomaterials and functional devices.
Mission
To equip research students with knowledge and skills for developing innovative technological solutions to societal and global challenges.
Establishment
The materials physics lab in the Department of Physics, Egerton University, was officially launched on 11th May 2023. The equipment in the lab were acquired through research grants by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) through the Future Africa Research Leadership (FAR-LeaF) program and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) (grant no. 20-187 RG/PHYS/AF/AC_I – FR3240314148). Other key equipment was donated by the World Bank.
Research focus
Research areas undertaken in the lab include nanotechnology, thin film technology, materials and device engineering for solar energy conversion, which constitute developing cutting-edge nanomaterials and technologies for the generation of electricity from solar energy. Broadly, the research aims at alleviating the global energy supply and demand challenges whilst ensuring environmental sustainability. Thus, the research contributes to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal seven, i.e. affordable and clean energy. The techniques utilized for thin film deposition in the lab include spin coating, thermal evaporation, and magnetron sputtering. Other techniques for nanomaterials preparation in the lab include chemical vapour deposition and solution-phase synthesis methods.
LAB EQUIPMENT
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NO |
EQUIPMENT |
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1 |
Oven |
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2 |
Auto 306 vacuum coating unit |
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3 |
Solar simulator |
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4 |
I-V measurement setup |
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5 |
Tube furnace oven |
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6 |
Nitrogen gas |
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7 |
Argon gas |
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8 |
Hotplate Stirrer |
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10 |
Analytical Balance |
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11 |
Water Bath Ultrasonic Soner |
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12 |
Spin Coater |
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13 |
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14 |
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15 |
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16 |
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17 |
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18 |
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19 |
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COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS LAB
The Computational Physics Lab is located at the Physical Sciences Complex in the Physics Building on the first floor in Room 0016.
Staff
Principal investigator: Dr. Winfred Mueni Mulwa
Assistant principal investigator: Dr. Anne Thirika
Students:
Graduate students:
Lukorito Edward Tindibale
Research Group:
Jerefassio Ndung'u
Moses Kahora
Ludek Ombeo
Otieno Vincent
Gabriel Chirchir
Lynet Allan and Namisi
Undergraduate students:
…..
Active research:
Investigation of magnetic properties of possible magnetic refrigerants (Fe2 P-type)
First principle study of photovoltaic materials
Half – Heusler materials for thermoelectric and power generation
Perovskite for photovoltaic applications
Publications:
First principle study of ATiO3(A = Ti, Sr) materials for photovoltaic applications.
Ab-initio study of p-type ZrCoY(Y, Sb, and Bi) half-Heusler semiconductors.
ABOUT US
Computational physics involves modelling and simulation of material properties.
We use DFT formalisms (Density Functional Theory)
Time-dependent DFT
Many body perturbation theory
Simulation codes
Quantum Espresso
Phonopy
BoltzTrap
Thermo-pw
AICON
GW
Computational resources:
6 parallel CPU Computational cluster
16 Computers
BACKGROUND:
This lab was part of award to Dr. Winfred by Japan Institute of Science and Technology(JAIST). This was as a result of strong bond and collaboration of Dr. Winfred and Professor Ryo Maezono of JAIST.
The Electronics Lab
The Electronics Lab is located at the Physical Sciences Complex in the Physics Building in Room ???