Dr. Saibal Mitra spent part of his 2018 sabbatical in Braga, Portugal at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL).

“This laboratory is a joint collaboration between governments of Portugal and Spain under an international legal framework to perform interdisciplinary research in the area of nanomaterials and nanotechnology for the benefits of society,” Mitra said.

About his research

Mitra, professor in the PAMS department, worked on two projects during his time at INL.

The first project was with photovoltaic materials. Essentially, Mitra was turning light into energy with outside materials. Mitra worked with students to set up and characterize a magnetron sputtering system for solar cell fabrication. Solar cells capture the energy from the sun. He also worked with optical measurement of materials.

The second project Mitra worked on was setting up a thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. A substance is added, the machine is heated up and then chemicals are introduced to test the reaction. This was to fabricate two-dimensional electronic materials. One example is molybdenum diselenide.

Mitra enjoyed working with collaborators outside of the United States.

“The most interesting part was working in a truly international environment,” Mitra said. “My collaborators and the students came from across Europe and the world.”