Semiconductor Design for Energy and Optoelectronics

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Welcome to Murthy Dharmapura's Lab

Our lab is located at the Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, India. Our vision is to develop functional materials for energy and optoelectronics applications. In this pursuit, our lab is equipped with innovative minds and state-of-the-art facilities to rationally tune the properties of materials.

Recent News

Starting the New Year with a bang. Simon’s paper in Polymer Chemistry on the polymerization mechanism is accepted for the back cover.

Our group wishes you all a very happy, healthy and productive 2026. The light always returns (quote from Avatar: Fire and Ash movie).

Simon and team published "Tuning the optoelectronic properties and nanostructure of silicon photoelectrodes for enhancing solar fuel production" in Communication Materials.

Sujana has submitted her PhD thesis for evaluation, marking the final step toward the award of her doctoral degree.

Simon travelled to TU Wien under Ernst Mach Grant-worldwide funded by OeAD-GmbH – Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalization, Mobility and Cooperation.

Murthy actively participated in 13th Asian and Oceanian Photochemistry Conference held at Kochi in October 2025.

Sujana and team published "Facile Tuning of the Iridium Valence State Augments Visible Light-Induced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting in Iridium-Doped BaTiO3" in ACS Applied Energy Materials.

Simon and team published "Precursor-dependent distinctive polymerization process controls optoelectronic properties in graphitic carbon nitride photocatalyst" in RSC Polymer Chemistry.

Reha and team published "The origin of annealing atmosphere-dependent defect formation and photocathodic behaviour in BiFeO3 thin films" in RSC Materials Advances.

Murthy participated in the first green hydrogen conference at New Delhi, India organized by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Govt. of India.

Murthy actively participated and presented his ideas during the national workshop on future-ready energy education: Opportunities and Challenges at IIT Delhi.

Reha is awarded INSPIRE Fellowship from Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India.

Sujana secured Best Poster Award at the 12th International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technology (ICMAT) 2025, Singapore organized by MRS Singapore.

Sujana is awarded Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) International Travel Support to present her poster titled “Role of Iridium-Doping in Barium Titanate and Tuning Optoelectronic Properties to Realize Visible Light-driven Hydrogen Evolution” at the 12th International Conference on Materials for Advanced Technology (ICMAT) 2025, Singapore organized by MRS Singapore.

Murthy is awarded an India-Austria bilateral research grant from The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (OeAD). This grant will allow exchange of researchers from TU Wien and our research group.

Simon visited Surrey Ion Beam Centre, Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, United Kingdom as Research Intern from 19th February 2025 to April 20th 2025. This visit was a part of the MoU between University of Surrey, UK and Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India. He worked on the synthesis of 2D materials for hydrogen generation.

Murthy is awarded a Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India research grant on developing next-generation optical sensor materials that detect real-time and ppm-level hydrogen leaks. Project duration: 3 years.