Andriy Zakutayev is a scientist working in the field of materials discovery and design for advanced energy technologies. The applied direction of his work includes development of new materials and devices for solar cells, photoelectrochemical fuel generation, Li-ion batteries, electrochemical fuel cells, power electronics, energy-efficient memories and computing, as well as other emerging energy technologies using materials-by-design methods. The basic direction involves research on discovery of previously unreported materials, non-equilibrium synthesis of metastable materials, as well as fundamental surface and interface science. Zakutayev uses high-throughput (combinatorial) experimental approaches, including autonomous synthesis and characterization of thin films, as well as automated data management and analysis in his work.

Zakutayev is an author of approximately 200 peer-reviewed publications and a reviewer for more than 30 scientific journals as of 2023. He has received an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science, an EMRS Young Scientist Award, and other professional recognition. Zakutayev has been a principal investigator of multiple multi-million dollar projects funded by several DOE offices. He supervises postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and exchange visitors, and actively collaborates with theorists and data scientists as well as application engineers and industrial partners.

Zakutayev received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2010 from Oregon State University (Prof. Janet Tate) working on wide-bandgap p-type semiconductors, after B.S. in Electronics from Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine. His postdoctoral advisor at NREL was David Ginley.

Research Interests

Novel semiconducting materials

High-throughput, combinatorial, and autonomous experimental methods

Physical vapor deposition of thin films

Defects/disorder and doping in semiconductors

Materials by Design and Materials Genome

Non-equilibrium and metastable materials

Nitride materials and devices

Ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials

Surface and interface science

Photovoltaic absorbers and solar cells

Transparent conductors and contacts

Ultra wide bandgap semiconductors

Oxide, nitride, sulfide, and phosphide materials

Photoelectrochemical production of fuels

Education

Ph.D., Physics, Oregon State University

B.S., Electronics, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine

Featured Work

Experimental Synthesis of Theoretically Predicted Multivalent Ternary Nitride Materials, Chemistry of Materials 34, 1418-1438 (2022)

Synthesis of LaWN₃ Nitride Perovskite with Polar Symmetry, Science 374, 1488-1491 (2021)

Reduced Coercive Field in Epitaxial Thin Film of Ferroelectric Wurtzite Al_0.7Sc_0.3N, Applied Physics Letters 118, 162903 (2021)

Triple Ionic–Electronic Conducting Oxides for Next-Generation Electrochemical Devices, Nature Materials 20, 310 (2021)

Wide Band Gap Chalcogenide Semiconductors, Chemical Reviews 120, 4007 (2020)

Growth and Characterization of Homoepitaxial ß-Ga₂O₃ Layers, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 53, 484002 (2020)

A Map of the Inorganic Ternary Metal Nitrides, Nature Materials 18, 732 (2019)

COMBIgor: Data Analysis Package for Combinatorial Materials science, ACS Combinatorial Science 21, 537 (2019)

How Much Will Gallium Oxide Power Electronics Cost?, Joule 3, 903 (2019)

A Computational Survey of Semiconductors for Power Electronics, Energy & Environmental Science 12, 3338 (2019)

The 2019 Materials by Design Roadmap, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 52, 013001 (2018)

An Open Experimental Database for Exploring Inorganic Materials. Scientific Data 5, 180053 (2018)

Trade-Offs in Thin Film Solar Cells with Layered Chalcostibite Photovoltaic Absorbers, Advanced Energy Materials 7, 1601935 (2017)

Design of Nitride Semiconductors for Solar Energy Conversion, Journal of Materials Chemistry A 4, 6742 (2016)

Defect Tolerant Semiconductors for Solar Energy Conversion, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 5, 1117 (2014)

Theoretical Prediction and Experimental Realization of New Stable Inorganic Materials Using Inverse Design Approach, Journal of the American Chemical Society 135, 10048 (2013)

Surface Origin of High Conductivities in Undoped In₂O₃ Thin Films, Physical Review Letters 108, 016802 (2012)

Zn–Ni–Co–O Wide-bandgap P-type Conductive Oxides with High Work Functions, MRS Communications 1, 23 (2011)