Dept of Physics - Cochin University of Science and Technology

Aldrin Antony

Associate Professor and Head of Department

BRIEF BIO

Dr. Aldrin Antony is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Physics at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). He also serves as the Honorary Director of the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Materials at CUSAT. Dr. Aldrin earned his M.Sc. in Physics and Ph.D. in Materials Science from CUSAT. He has held prestigious research positions, including as post-doctoral fellow at ENEA, Italy, and Research Scientist at the Grup d’Energia Solar, University of Barcelona, Spain, during 2004 to 2012. From 2012 to 2019, he served as a Senior Scientist at IIT Bombay. Dr. Aldrin has received fellowships from ICS-UNIDO and ICTP-UNESCO and was honoured as the National Solar Science Fellow by the MNRE Government of India. Dr. Aldrin has supervised 5 Ph.D. theses, authored more than 80 peer-reviewed research papers, and holds 7 patents. He is also a consultant to several equipment manufacturing companies, specializing in product design, fabrication, and process development.

Topics of Research

Biosensors, Gas sensors, 2D materials, Si heterojunction Solar Cells, Memristors, SERS, Semiconductor Devices, Integrated Solutions

Awards

• National Solar Science fellow of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India

• International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS) -UNIDO fellow

• International Centre for Science and High Technology (ICS) -UNIDO fellow

Faculty Start-Up Grant, RUSA, 2022

Academic & Administrative Responsibilities and Committees

Head, Department of Physics, CUSAT ( Since 2023)

Honorary Director, Centre of Excellence in Advanced Materials, CUSAT

Member, Board of Studies in Physics , CUSAT(Since 2023)

Member, Faculty of Science, Cochin University of Science and Technology (since 2022)

Member, Board of Studies in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, CUSAT (since 2022)

Member, Academic Council, CUSAT (since 2023)

Nodal officer, Bureau of Indian Standards, CUSAT

Coordinator, Kerala Centre for Analytical Services , A Centre of Excellence under Kerala State Higher Education Council in the Semiconductor domain

Coordinator, National Renewable Energy Fellowship of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) at CUSAT

Member, IQAC Core Committee, CUSAT

Member, Governing council and Executive Committee of Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Center

Member, Library Advisory Committee, CUSAT

Advisory Board Member, Centre for Science in Society, CUSAT

Member, Board of Studies in Physics, St. Joseph’s College Devagiri

Member, Curriculum Steering Committee, General Education, Govt of Kerala

Member, Kerala State Curriculum Committee for Higher Education, Govt of Kerala

Member, Committee to formulate uniform norms for awarding grace marks related to NSS/ NCC/Sports for FYUP,Kerala State Higher Education Council

Member, Research Advisory Committee, Integrated Rural Technology Centre

Member, Expert Panel for preparing Curriculum, Syllabus and Scheme for the New Courses in the Government and Aided Colleges in Kannur University (2020-21)

Member of Senate, Sreenarayana Guru Open University, Kerala

Work Experience

Associate Professor, Industrial Physics at Department of Physics, Cochin University of Science & Technology (Since 2019)

Senior Project Executive officer, Investigator,NCPRE, IIT Bombay (2017-2019)

National Solar Science Fellow of MNRE , Hosted as Faculty @ Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay(2012-2017)

Research Scientist,Grup d’ Energia Solar, Department of Applied Physics and Optics, University of Barcelona, Spain (2006-2012)

ICTP-UNESCO postdoctoral Fellow,ENEA, Portici (NAPOLI), ITALY (2005-2006)

ICS-UNIDO Fellow,ENEA, Portici (NAPOLI), ITALY (2004-2005)

Projects

Laser assisted fabrication of interdigitated dopant free carrier selective silicon heterojunction solar cells , ANERT, Total outlay Rs.4701900 (2023-2026)

Development thin film corrosion detector probes and MOF based H2S adsorbents for natural gas filling stations, AQOZA Technologies Pvt Ltd, (2024-2025) – Status: Ongoing

Ultrafast laser beamlines for Multidisciplinary, Multitasking Research Programmes, Chancellor's Award - 2019, 4 Crores (2021 - 2025)

Fabrication of interdigitated dopant free carrier Selective c-Si solar cell by scalable process with open circuit voltage above 700 mV, SERB-CRG, 35.42 Lakhs (28-12-2021 - 27-12-2024)

Development of 2D Heterojunction Solar Cells, Seed Money for New Research Initiatives (SMNRI, CUSAT), 2.5 Lakhs (2021-09-03 - 2023-08-03)

Metal organic frameworks for chemical sensing and VOC sorption applications, CUSATECH foundation, outlay 8.4 lakhs (2023-2025)

Development of Porous Silicon-Carbon composites as anode materials for Li-ion batteries , RUSA Phase II sponsored project with Industrial partner: Carborundum Universal Limited (2021-23) 5.9 Lakhs

Development of Air corrosion Sensor Probe, Aqosa Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Industry consultancy project), 4.69 Lakhs (2021-01-07 - 28-02-2024)

3 kW Off Grid Floating Solar PV Plant with Storage for Floating Fish Farming, M/s. Adrak Engineering and Construction India Pvt. Ltd. (Consultancy Project), 6.38 Lakhs (2021-10-01 - 2022-09-01)

Advanced Materials and Nanostructures for high Efficiency Silicon and Thin film solar cells-AMANSI , Funded by MNRE, Govt of India under the National Solar Science fellowship, 1.526 Crores, 2012-2017

Collaboration

Novel Boron-Doped p-Type Cu2O Thin Films as a Hole-Selective Contact in c-Si Solar Cells, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India, International School of Photonics

Effect of different Annealing methods on the Performance Parameters of PEDOT:PSS/n-Si Solar Cells, Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Electronics (ICEE) 2020. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICEE50728.2020.9776719, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India, International School of Photonics

Material- and Process-Tolerant High-Efficiency Solar Cells With Dynamic Recovery of Performance,IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 68,4 (2021) 1676-1681. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2021.3056954, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India, International School of Photonics

Co-guided the Ph.D.thesis of Dr. Swasti Bhattia, Coguidance of Ph.D. thesis with Prof. Pradeep Nair, EE department of IIT Bombay

Ph.D.thesis Co-guide of Anil Kumar, Coguidance of Ph.D. thesis with Prof. Pradeep Nair, EE department of IIT Bombay

PhD Thesis Supervised

Paz Carreras Segui, Ph.D. Co-Guide @University of Barcelona, Solar Cells, Doped and multi-compound ZnO based transparent conducting oxides for silicon thin film solar cells (2013)

Marta Lluscà Jané, Ph.D. Co-Guide@University of Barcelona, Solar Cells, Novel light management techniques for thin film solar cells: Nanotextured substrates and transparent conducting upconverters (2015)

Kurias K Markose, Ph.D., Co-Guide@ Cochin University of Science and Technology, Development of carrier selective contacts and upconversion phosphors for silicon solar cells (2021)

Swasti Bhattia, Ph.D. @IIT Bombay, Solar Cells, Modeling and Fabrication of Low Temperature Processed Si based Heterojunction Solar Cells (2021)

Anil Kumar, Ph.D. Co-Guide @IIT Bombay, Fabrication and Simulation of PEDOT:PSS/n-Si Solar Cells (2024)

PhD/Project Students

Rameeja T Abdul Rasheed, Solar Cells

Anjala Jayaraj, Memristors

Ajmal Mon A, Laser Processings in Solar Cells

Antony Sharon, Memristors

Dhanya P Jacob, Nanomaterials and Bio-Sensors

Salva M, Energy Materials

Sumayya M.K., Optoelectronic Devices

L R Sriramachandru, Project Assistant (2025 - 2026)

Adhidev K, Project Assistant (2025 - 2026)

Patents

Solar Module with Selective Coloured Coating,No: WO2017090056, PCT/1N2016/050275

Selectively Modulated Aesthetic Reflector Technology (SMART) coatings for colored aesthetic photovoltaic modules, Indian Patent No: 361405 , Year: 2015, Patent Granted on 16/03/2021

Thin film solar cells having combined textures, P. No: WO 2010/072862 , Year: 2008

Gated Solar Cell for managing back-surface and method for fabrication thereof, Pradeep Nair, Aldrin Antony, Nithin Chatterji Indian Patent No: 525460 Granted on 14/03/2024

System and Method for Fabrication of Multi-layer Thin Film Optoelectronic Devices, Indian Patent No: 464062,Patent Granted on 31/10/2023

Controlled drug delivery system for treating periodontitis and methods thereof, Indian Patent No. 552050, Patent Granted on 8/10/2024

Method for forming passivation and electron transporting layer for silicon using titanium dioxide, Indian Patent No: 519431 ,Granted Date: 04/03/2024

Recent Publications

2026

Reversible mechanochromism and sunlight-induced photoisomerization in a multi-stimuli responsive phenothiazine-oxadiazoborole system, Sachin Philip, Athira Kokkadan, Subhash, Dhanya Plavidayil Jacob, Aldrin Antony, Luc Van Meervelt, Wim Dehaen, Santhini Pulikkal Veetil, Shandev Pookkandam Parambil, Dyes and Pigments 246, p113418 (15 March 2026), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dyepig.2025.113418

2025

A. Soman, R. Jadhav, and A. Antony, “Review on the progress of colored silicon solar cells for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) application, Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, vol. 83, p. 104612 (9 October 2025) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2025.104612

Indolo [3,2‑a] carbazole-Based Hole-Selective Layers for Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells, Haritha Jalaja Raghavan, Rameeja T. Abdul Rasheed, Kiran James, Aldrin Antony and Narayanapillai Manoj, ACS Appl. Electron. Mater.,(11 August 2025). https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaelm.5c01116

Ultraviolet pulse-driven neuromorphic device for pattern recognition, Anjala Jayaraj, Subin P.S, Arun G, Saji K.J, Aldrin Antony , J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 36:1224 (11 July 2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-025-15318-5

Pulsed Laser Deposition of Large‐Area Bilayers of WS2 Thin Films, Saranya Sasi, P. S. Midhun, Antony Sharon, M. K. Jayaraj, Aldrin Antony, R. Reshmi, J. Electron. Mater. (03 July 2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-025-12148-3

Surface-modified TiO2 nanorods using oxygen plasma for optical synaptic performance and neuromorphic computing applications, A Sharon, PS Subin, G Arun, MK Jayaraj, A Antony, Surfaces and Interfaces 64, 106357(1 May 2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2025.106357

Fabrication of PDMS based flexible capacitive tactile sensor array with inkjet printed silver electrodes for robotic object grasp control, V.G.Mary Catherine, Binu Paul, Antony Sharon, Aldrin Antony, and Daleesha M. Viswanathan, Eng. Res. Express 6 (2024) 045356, https://doi.org/10.1088/2631-8695/ad9986

Optoelectronic synaptic plasticity mimicked in a ZnO-based artificial synapse for neuromorphic image sensing application, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104232

Emulating Synaptic Plasticity in Ionic Liquid-gated Zinc Tin Oxide Neuromorphic Transistor, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08817-2

Mixed tin-lead perovskite nanorod-based resistive memory device, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2022.139437

Exploring the surface enhanced Raman scattering on electrospun TiO2/Ag hybrid structure for pesticide detection, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11468-022-01638-3

Material- and Process-Tolerant High-Efficiency Solar Cells With Dynamic Recovery of Performance, https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2021.3056954

Studies on the efficacy of alkaline and acidic etching in Aluminium Induced Texturing of glass for solar cell application, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfin.2021.101061

A critical study on different hydrogen plasma treatment methods of a-Si: H/ c-Si interface for enhanced defect passivation, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2021.149551

Performance enhancement of organic/Si solar cell using CNT embedded hole selective layer, doi:10.1016/j.solener.2020.09.024

Novel boron doped p-type Cu2O thin film as hole selective contact in c-Si solar cell,, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b22581

Unravelling the Hole Selective Nature of Si/MoOX heterojunction, https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2020.3019957

IQAC Profile Link: https://iqac.cusat.ac.in/Web/profile_view/435/Dr.ALDRINANTONY

Faculties