Shraddha Sevlikar Materials Scientist

Thin Films & Nanomaterials

Thin Films & Nanomaterials

Functional materials designed at the nanoscale

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Chemical bath deposition of thin films for gas-sensor and solar-cell applications.
Chemical bath deposition of thin films for gas-sensor and solar-cell applications.

Scientific question

How do deposition conditions decide the structure of a thin film — and through it, whether the film actually works as a sensor or an absorber?

At reduced dimensions, small changes in morphology, composition or interface quality strongly influence stability, transport and functional performance.

Research Scientist — Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (June 2014 – April 2017)

My contribution

What I did

I fabricated and characterised CdS, PbS and polyaniline thin films for gas-sensing and solar-cell applications, principally by chemical bath deposition, alongside sputtering and physical vapour deposition routes.

Beyond the fabrication, I installed and operated the XRD instrumentation and ran EXAFS/PDF-based structural analysis in collaboration with the RRCAT and BARC research centres — connecting how a film was grown to the structure it ended up with, and to how it then behaved.

Methods

How it was measured

  • CdS, PbS and polyaniline thin films by chemical bath deposition
  • Sputtering and physical vapour deposition
  • XRD installation, operation and analysis
  • EXAFS and PDF structural analysis (RRCAT, BARC)
  • UV–Vis and electrical characterisation
  • Gas-sensing and solar-cell device-relevant testing

See these methods in full on the Expertise page

Key findings

What the work showed

01

Deposition chemistry and conditions set film structure, and film structure sets the sensing and optical response.

02

Chemical bath deposition gives usable control over nanostructure without vacuum-scale cost.

03

Local structural analysis explains behaviour that diffraction alone leaves ambiguous.

This work explores how thin films and nanomaterials can be engineered through controlled surfaces, interfaces and microstructure. At reduced dimensions, small changes in morphology, composition or interface quality can strongly influence stability, transport and functional performance.

From fabrication to functional application

CdS, PbS and polyaniline thin films grown mainly by chemical bath deposition, alongside sputtering and physical vapour deposition, and characterised by XRD, EXAFS, PDF, UV–Vis, SEM and electrical measurements. The applications that motivated the work were gas sensing and solar cells — surface-driven technologies where the film's interface quality is the device performance.

Why it matters

Useful for surface-driven technologies — sensors, coatings, photovoltaic absorbers — where reliability, miniaturisation and nanoscale control decide whether a device performs.

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