Platform for multisCale simulation of hot carriers: electrons and phonons for energy harvesting

The project Placho (Platform for multisCale simulation of hot carriers: electrons and phonons for energy harvesting) funded by then French Funding research agency ANR (via grants ANR-21-CE50-0008) aims to develop an original multi scale (DFT+Monte Carlo+NEGF) numerical platform from atoms to device specifically dedicated to energy conversion. This versatile tool based on first principles will be able to capture the properties of electrons, holes and phonons and their coupling in a wide energy range for a large set of materials without the need of prior measurements. The fine accuracy of physical description of electric and thermal phenomena will be exploited for device simulation purposes. The transport of carriers belonging to the high energy distribution tail in both the stationary and transient regimes will be considered also when quantum effects are dominant. The output of the PlaCho project will boost the evaluation of the potentiality and the optimization of emerging concepts in energy conversion in which band engineering for high energy filtering, tunneling and high energy carrier extraction are involved for, but not limited to, thermoelectrics and photovoltaics.

Beginning and duration of the scientific project: September 2021 – 42 Months

More information : https://anr.fr/Project-ANR-21-CE50-0008

3 Partners

C2N Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies
LSI Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés
IMPMC Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie

Project coordinator: Jérome Saint-Martin (Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies)