Manuel João de Moura Dias Mendes

Prof. Manuel J. Mendes was born in Lisbon, in 1982. He received the Engineering degree in Physics in 2005 from Instituto Superior Técnico, Univ. de Lisboa (IST-UL), the Master of Science degree in Applied Physics in 2008 from Rice University (Houston, USA), and the Ph.D. in Photovoltaic Solar Energy in 2012 from Instituto de Energía Solar (Madrid, Spain) on the novel topic of Nanophotonics for Multi-Band Photovoltaics.

He has been involved in >50 projects in Energy-related areas while working in USA (2005-08), Spain (2008-12), Italy (2012-14) and Portugal (2014-present). His research in Portugal has been performed at CENIMAT-i3N, where he has been PI of several national and international R&D projects on Photonic-enhanced Solar Cells, Quantum-structured Semiconductors, Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) and Solar Fuels.

He is author of >80 peer-reviewed publications, and co-inventor of 2 U.S. Patents. The first patent was distinguished with an award from NASA Inventions and Contributions Board, and the second opened a research line in plasmonic intermediate-band solar cells. He has also been awarded with 2 prestigious Marie Curie Experienced-Research Fellowships (in 2012 and 2014) related with light management for solar cells, as well as 10 prestigious scientific honours.

In 2023, an ERC Consolidator Grant was awarded to his project X-STREAM (Power-to-X: Streaming Hydrogen from 3-Band Solar Cells boosted with Photonic Management).

Thermal-Carrier-Escape Mitigation in a Quantum-Dot-In-Perovskite Intermediate Band Solar Cell via Bandgap Engineering. U. D Menda, G. Ribeiro, J. Deuermeier, E. López, D. Nunes, S. Jana, I. Artacho, R. Martins, I. Mora-Seró, M. J Mendes, I. Ramiro. ACS Photonics. Vol. 10, Pages: 3647–3655 (2023).

Light management with quantum nanostructured dots-in-host semiconductors. M. Alexandre, H. Águas, E. Fortunato, R. Martins, M. J. Mendes. Light: Science & Applications, 10, article # 231 (2021).

Light trapping in solar cells: simple design rules to maximize absorption. K. Li, S. Haque, A. Martins, E. Fortunato, R. Martins, M. J. Mendes, C. S. Schuster. Optica, 7, 1377-1384 (2020).

Photonic-structured TiO2 for high-efficiency, flexible and stable Perovskite solar cells. S. Haque, M. J. Mendes, O. S. Sobrado, H. Águas, E. Fortunato, R. Martins. Nano Energy, 59, 91–101 (2019).

Design of optimized wave-optical spheroidal nanostructures for photonic-enhanced solar cells. M. J. Mendes, A. Araújo, A. Vicente, H. Águas, I. Ferreira, E. Fortunato, R. Martins. Nano Energy, 26, 286-296 (2016).