Marie Curie PhD scholarship in ‘degradation mechanisms in organic solar cells’ at the nanoscience centre NanoSYD, Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark is available as of August 1, 2014 for a three-year period. 

This PhD project is part of the newly established Marie Curie network ‘Thin-film Hybrid Interfaces: a training initiative for the design of next-generation energy devices’ (THINFACE). As participants the consortium involves four more academic groups from: The Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain; University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; Graz University of Technology, Austria; University Pierre and Marie Curie, France; the Research Center Nanogune, Spain; and two industries: Danfoss, Denmark and Novaled, Germany, along with five associated partners. The network consists of 14 PhD projects in total.

The overall goal of this PhD project is to develop small molecule based organic solar cells with optimized lifetime and stability. In this project, degradation mechanisms in the active layers of small molecule based organic solar cells will be investigated from different optical spectroscopy techniques, including transient spectroscopy techniques. The solar cells will be fabricated from organic molecular beam deposition (OMBD) of the small molecules at a new cluster deposition system at NanoSYD at the Mads Clausen Institute, University of Southern Denmark. Based on the output from the material and device characterization, screening of different material systems will be performed for optimization of the device lifetime. A secondment stay at the industry partner Danfoss Solar Inverters is planned.  

Candidates, who have a previous Master’s degree in a field relevant to the mentioned PhD project, may seek the fellowships. Candidates should have a background in device physics. Preferred candidates have experience with organic thin-film device fabrication processes and optical spectroscopy techniques. Highly qualified candidates, who expect to obtain their M. Sc. degree in the next few months, are also encouraged to apply. Salary conditions, travel/mobility allowances and benefits will follow the attractive EU amounts for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in the programme FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN.

One general rule applies to the appointment of researchers:
At the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date. Short stays such as holidays and/or compulsory national service are not taken into account. 

The successful applicant will be enrolled as a PhD student at the PhD School at the Faculty of Engineering within the Research Training Programme Functional Materials and Nanotechnology.

For further information please contact Assistant professor Morten Madsen,  e-mail: madsen@mci.sdu.dk

Application, salary and conditions of employment etc.
A PhD Fellowship is a 3-year position. Employment stops automatically by the end of the period. The PhD Fellow is not allowed to have other paid employment during the three-year period.

Applications will be assessed by an expert committee. Applicants will be informed of their assessment by the Faculty.

As part of the overall assessment of the applicant’s qualifications, an interview may be applied.

Employment is governed by the Protocol on PhD Research Fellows signed by the Danish Ministry of Finance and AC (the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) March 26th 2012, enclosure 5, Cirkulære om overenskomst for Akademikere i staten 2013

Applications must be submitted electronically using the link below. Attached files must be in Adobe PDF or Word format. The Faculty expects applicants to read the information “How to apply ” before applying.

Each box can only contain a single file of max. 10 Mb.

An application must include:

• A curriculum vitae
• Application form this application form for 5+3 applicants
• Letter stating your interest, motivation ect. Please attach the motivational letter to "application material" under " Research plan"
• Diplomas/certificates
• Relevant publications. Please attach one pdf-file for each publication, a possible co-author statement must be a part of this pdf-file

The University encourages all interested persons to apply, regardless of age, gender, religious affiliation or ethnic background.

Further information about the PhD-program at the Faculty of Engineering can be found here.