Dr Sonia Ruiz Raga | ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science

Dr Sonia Ruiz Raga

Postdoctoral researcher

Dr. Sonia R. Raga (B.Sc. Chem. Eng., 2010), obtained her M.Sc. (2011) and Ph.D. (2013) on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Physics Department of the Universitat Jaume I (Spain). Her Ph.D focused on the device fabrication and characterization of organic and dye-sensitized Solar Cells, specialising on frequency-resolved electrochemical measurements. Dr. Raga completed a postdoctoral position at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST, Japan), continuing her research on perovskite solar cells (PSC). Her main work was to develop new synthesis methods for the optimization of perovskite and selective contact layers and understanding the device physics of the device. Her pioneering work on the gas-assisted perovskite film deposition (patent filed) got awarded funds from the OIST Proof of Concept Program (PoC), where she helped leading the Project from Feb 2017. In October 2017, she continued her research at Monash University (Australia), joining the Australian Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science (ACEx). Within the center she specialised on device electrical characterisation. Other responsibilities include conference and workshop organization and chair, undergraduate final year project coordination and Ph.D. students mentoring and supervision. In 2019, she completed the CSIRO ON Program, gaining skills on networking towards applying and maximising the impact of the research innovations. From June 2020 she became a Senior researcher at the Catalan Institute of Science and Technology (Spain) with the fellowship laCaixa Junior Leader to conduct her project on perovskite solar cell stability. Dr. Raga has a total of 41 publications, with over 2900 citations (h-index 26), 5 patent applications and 1 book chapter. She is peer reviewer for 22 scientific journals, reviewer for a Ph.D. thesis and a Ph.D. proposal, and is part of the editorial board of Frontiers in Energy Research: Solar Energy.

Dr. Raga has a strong motivation on contributing to the zero-emissions global Energy Transition through the development of next generation photovoltaics. Her research interests are the identification of the physical mechanisms limiting the performance and stability of these devices such as electronic transport, charge transfer and the effects of the ionic-electronic coupled conduction of hybrid perovskite materials, as well as overcoming these limitations through tailored modifications of the materials and interfaces.

ORCID iD: 
0000000242459245
Centre Research: 

Theme 1.

Platform 1.2. Solution-Processed Next Generation Solar Cells

Work Package 2: Device Fabrication and Characterisation

Research objectives:

-.To quantitatively understand the operation of a given solar cell based on measured device and material parameters.
-.To quantify the type, density, and energetic characteristics of defects in the bulk and at the interfaces of solution-processed solar cells.
-.To identify the origin of and suppress ionic accumulation in perovskites devices.

Centre Research Themes: 
1. Excitonic Systems for Solar Energy Conversion

Publications

Book Chapters
Boix, P. P.; Raga, S. R.; Mathews, N. CHAPTER 2.1: Working Principles of Perovskite Solar Cells. In Halide Perovskites: Photovoltaics, Light Emitting Devices, and Beyond; Halide Perovskites: Photovoltaics, Light Emitting Devices, and Beyond; © 2019 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 2018; pp 81-99. doi: 10.1002/9783527800766
Journal Articles
Tan, B.; Raga, S. R.; Chesman, A. S. R.; Fürer, S. O.; Zheng, F.; McMeekin, D. P.; Jiang, L.; Mao, W.; Lin, X.; Wen, X.; et al. P‐Dopant: LiTFSI‐Free Spiro‐OMeTAD‐Based Perovskite Solar Cells with Power Conversion Efficiencies Exceeding 19%(Cover: Adv. Energy Mater. 32/2019). Advanced Energy Materials 2019, 9 (32) DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201970123. doi: 10.1002/aenm.201970123
Lin, X.; Chesman, A. S. R.; Raga, S. R.; Scully, A. D.; Jiang, L.; Tan, B.; Lu, J.; Cheng, Y.; Bach, U. Effect of Grain Cluster Size on Back-Contact Perovskite Solar Cells. Advanced Functional Materials 2018, 28 (45), 1805098 DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201805098. doi: 10.1002/adfm.201805098