D. D. Sarma's Group

01/10/2026

Our recent article published in Physical Review B maps the T-P structural phase diagram of 8% Cr-doped VO2. Notably, none of the observed phases exhibit V-V dimerization or tilting, distortions typically observed for pure and lightly doped VO2. Congrats to Sayak Mandal and other authors.

The complex interplay between crystal structure and electron correlation in driving phase transitions in ${\mathrm{VO}}_{2}$, as a function of parameters such as temperature, pressure, doping, and strain, has long been a central problem in condensed matter science. In this work, we present a tempera...

13/08/2026

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Srimanta Middey, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, IISc, and a former member of the DDS group, has been selected to receive the 2026 SMC Bronze Medal. Heartiest congratulations to him.

24/04/2026

Check out our recent article published as part of the Chemistry of Materials special issue “Honoring the Outstanding Contributions of Mercouri Kanatzidis to Chemistry of Materials” where we explore how the lone pair effects and octahedral tilting drive thermally induced polar-polar transitions in CsGeI3 while retaining a strong nonlinear optical response over a wide temperature range. Congrats to all the authors.

Three-dimensional all-inorganic perovskites with low optical bandgaps, with the possibility of hosting spontaneous polarization, as realized in CsGeX3 (X = Cl–, Br–, and I–), hold significant promise in the field of ferroelectric photovoltaics, with the possibility of charting a different path...

02/04/2026

Why is quantum-cutting in Yb3+-doped CsPbCl3 nanocrystals thermally-activated, despite being a down-conversion process? Also, a first glimpse into the coherent/decoherent nature of the two photons emitted. Check out our recent article in Small. Congrats to Poulomi Mukherjee

Yb3+-doped CsPbCl3 nanocrystals exhibit remarkable quantum-cutting, achieving nearly 200% near-infrared Yb3+ emission quantum yield. This study uncovers the origin of the thermally activated Yb3+ emi...

28/03/2026

We are pleased to announce that our former group member, Prof. Srimanta Middey [Associated Professor, Department of Physics, IISc], has been awarded 'IISc Research Award 2026'. Heartiest congratulations to him.

21/02/2026

We are happy to share that our collaborative work by Debasmita Pariari with Prof. Shaibal Sarkar’s group at is now published in Advanced Energy Materials! In this study, a modified sputtering strategy is employed for depositing NiO as a hole transport layer in n–i–p perovskite solar cells, incorporating a thin buffer interface.
With this scalable approach, we achieved:
• 23.45% champion PCE (~22.2% mean) on rigid glass
• 22.1% champion PCE (~21% mean) on flexible ITO-PET
This marks a major leap for sputtered NiO-based n–i–p devices and highlights a viable pathway toward efficient, stable, and scalable fully inorganic perovskite photovoltaics.
Congratulations to the entire team for this achievement!

Read the full paper here:

A modified sputtering protocol enables damage-free NiO deposition as the HTL in n-i-p perovskite solar cells via a thin Spiro-OMeTAD buffer layer and electrically biased grid. The resulting devices a...

16/01/2026

As marks a decade of excellence, the editorial team reflects on the key advances made and lays down some of the pressing scientific issues for the next decade in the field of energy research.

CloseNextPreviousDownload Hi-Res ImageDownload to MS-PowerPointCite This:ACS Energy Lett. 2026, ###X, ###, ###-### ADVERTISEMENT InfoMetricsFiguresRef. ACS Energy LettersASAPArticle This publication is free to access through this site. Learn More CiteCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referen...

03/01/2026

We are delighted to announce that our former group member, Angshuman Nag, now Professor at IISER Pune has been appointed as the Associate Editor of JACS Au, starting from January 1, 2026. Heartiest congratulations to him.

03/01/2026

We are delighted to announce that our former group member Ranjani Viswanatha, currently professor at JNCASR, Bengaluru has been elected as a fellow of the Indian academy of Science (2026). Heartiest congratulations to her.

31/12/2025

Rational data analysis matters!

Our recent perspective article introduces a bias-free approach to analyze heat capacity data for thermoelectric materials. Using the Debye-Einstein model, we propose a rational basis that guides the selection of the optimal number of Einstein oscillator terms within a specified temperature range, allowing for robust conclusions. We apply our method to materials with stereochemically active lone pairs (PbBi2S4, PbSnS3, TlBiSe2, and AgPbBiSe3), intrinsic rattler species (TlCuZrSe3 and Bi13S18Br2), soft chemical bonding (CuBiI4), and materials with nanoscale atomic ordering (Cd-doped AgSbTe2), demonstrating its broad applicability. This approach will help streamline future studies and inspire researchers to apply similar rigorous standards in their analyses.

Congratulations to Rohit Rohj, অনুষ্টুপ ইত্যাদি , and Kanishka Biswas

Proper data analysis is essential to extracting meaningful insights from raw data. For thermoelectric materials, specific heat measurements provide important clues to thermal properties and are routinely analyzed using the Debye–Einstein model. Conventional treatments often rely on intuition conce...