Dr. Muhammad Aftab Rafiq

Research interests

* Micro/nanofabrication of devices for memory and information processing

* Preparation of novel nanomaterials and nanodevices for applications in diverse fields such as information processing devices, humidity sensors, gas sensors and light detectors.

* Solid state reaction method, co-precipitation technique and electrospinning are used to prepare nanoparticles, nanowires, nanoflakes and nanorods of semiconductor materials.

* Simple devices are then fabricated to study electrical, sensing, and photodetection properties of these nanostructures.

* Photocatalysis using nanomaterials

* Materials modelling

Phone: +92-51-9248702

Fax: +92-51-9248600

E-mail: aftabrafiq[at]pieas.edu.pk

Research grants:

* Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide based photodetectors and quantum effect devices” by Pakistan Science Foundation and National Natural Science Foundation of China 2017(PI).

* Metal oxide / sulphide nanostructures for environmental pollution detection, monitoring and remediation (17.57 million PKR) awarded by Higher Education Commission Islamabad Pakistan in 2016

* Start-up research grant program, Computational study of electronic, structural and optical properties of metal sulphides / oxides, (PKR 449,754/-) by HEC 2015.

* British Council Researchers Links Travel grant 2014 (4285 UK pound)

* Electron transport in silicon nanostructures (4.46 million PKR) awarded by Higher Education Commission Islamabad Pakistan in 2009

* Higher Education Commission Grant for Spare Parts / Maintenance of Equipment (1 million Pakistan Rupees).

Current research topics :

To contact me:

Further information about my research:

* Google scholar profile

* Researchgate profile

Research facilities:

* Cryogenic probe station

* Temperature can be varied from 77 K to 500 K

* Precision semiconductor parameter analyzer Agilent 4156C

* LCR meter Agilent E4980a

* Keithley 2400 source meter

* In-house built Electrospinning setup

* In-house built setup to study ferroelectric properties

* In-house built setup for photocatalysis

* In-house built setup for gas sesning

* Edwards E306 thermal evaporator

* A 10 core FUJITSU workstation for materials modelling

* Density functional theory code WEIN2k

* The General Utility Lattice Program (GULP) to perform a variety of tasks based on force field methods

* Small lab items such as ultrasonic bathe, pH meter, centrifuge, lock-in amplifier, nanovoltmeter, vacuum pumps, oscilloscopes, etc.

* Box furnaces

* XRD, SEM and thermal analysis facilities are available in collaborating laboratories