Dr Madhuku obtained his Honours degree in Applied Physics from the National University of Science & Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 1998; a Master of Science in Physics from the University of Fort Hare in 2003; and a PhD in Experimental Nuclear-Solid State Physics from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008. He has been working in accelerator-based research for more than a decade and during the PhD studies participated in Muon Spin Rotation, Relaxation and Resonance (μSR) experiments as part of an international collaboration between the Rutherford Appleton laboratory’s ISIS Muon facility and the University of the Witwatersrand (ISIS-Wits) collaboration in Muon Science, where He played an active role writing research proposals, preparing for the experiments and, basically, coordinating the two research teams. His current primary research interests include ion beam-induced synthesis, modification, and analysis of thin films and nanostructures for optical and electronic applications. He leading a small research group with two (2) MSc and six (6) PhD students working on various wide bandgap materials (SiC, III-nitrides, ZnO, etc). Nanostructured wide-bandgap semiconductors, for example, III-nitrides, SiC, ZnO, TiO2, SnO2, diamond, BN, and others, have attracted a lot of interest due to potential applications in solid-state lighting, solar cells, power electronics, sensors, spintronics, and MEMS/NEMS. These materials exhibit tremendous advantages with regard to power capability, energy conversion efficiency, optical properties, radiation strength, and high temperature and frequency operation. Although great progress has been achieved in the synthesis of nanomaterials and promising device applications have been demonstrated since the 21st Century, much further research in crystallinity improvement, electronic structure control, impurities doping, and design of devices still need to be explored. To push forward potential applications of nanomaterials, our understanding of growth dynamics and defect physics of nanomaterials should be improved. Although doping with impurity atoms during growth remains the basic method to alter the electrical and optical properties of semiconductors, an alternative approach is to alter and tailor the morphology, optical, structural, and electrical properties of nanomaterials through irradiation with energetic beams. Even a slight change in the nanomaterial particle or grain size can produce a material with different characteristics altogether! This approach of probing nanomaterials through ion irradiation has, thus, become an interesting research area for future technologies. We employ the following techniques to characterize the ion beam modified nanomaterials: Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and channeling (RBS-C), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microscopy techniques (SEM, TEM), Particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Four-point probe I-V electrical method, Photoluminescence (PL), Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM), and related techniques. In 2013 I was awarded a TWAS Postdoctoral Fellowship and spent six months at the National Centre for Physics (NCP) in Islamabad, Pakistan, working on ion beam analysis of group III-nitride materials. From August to October 2018, He was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Solid State Physics at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany under the DAAD Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists Scholarship where he worked on a project titled “Ion beam modification of tin oxide semiconductor nanostructures for energy and sensing applications”. He has more than thirty (30) publications and one book Chapter. he has so far successfully co-supervised three postgraduate students. He has served as a peer reviewer for the following international journals: Surface Review and Letters, Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences, Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering, Textile Research Journal, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Applied Nanoscience, and CLEAN – soil, air, water.
