Interview No.11　Agarwal Anubha　物質理工学院

I am Anubha Agarwal. I am from India and have obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from India. After I finished my master’s course, I was appointed at Deakin university Australia for 2 years as a research assistant. Currently, I am a 3rd-year doctoral student who is in the in final phase of finishing my research and compiling all the necessary and important things for graduation. I am very excited about my graduation but at the same time very sad because after graduation I need to leave this place, and I will be going to miss my lab which I consider as my second home. I usually spend my free time listening to music, travelling, drawing, etc. I love to meet people and experience different cultures and traditions. I am very attached to Tokyo Tech and my favorite thing is to see Mt. fuji from the Ookayama campus. I like every season at Tokyo Tech as but it is especially beautiful during the cherry blossom season.

Research Outline

My research is mainly focused on the microscopic study of mixed cation lead halide perovskites. Perovskite solar cells have made tremendous progress in the past couple of years, reaching over 22% power conversion, and a huge volume of research work has been devoted to finding out the distinctive properties of the ABX₃ structure formation. The best performance and progress were exhibited by MAPbI₃ perovskites. However, there are several major drawbacks of this material, such as heterogeneity, trap dominance, and halide segregation. In this study, we synthesized mixed cation (FA/MA) lead iodide perovskites thin films of varying composition and studied the optical and photophysical properties of the films on the microscopic level. Measuring photoluminescence intensity, and spectra of the films on the sub-micrometer scale, as well as their dynamical properties provides basic photophysical characterization which can answer the problems of grain boundaries and by the presence of defects that can trap photo-generated charge carriers and lead to their non-radiative recombination and structural heterogeneity.

How to keep yourself motivated during your Ph.D

I am very grateful to the Tokyo Institute of Technology for giving me a chance to pursue my doctoral degree at this prestigious institute. It will be a remarkable achievement to have graduated from Tokyo tech due to high standards of research and be a part of this community. I want to thank from the bottom of my heart to the “Cross the border! Tokyo Tech Pioneering Doctoral Research Project” for providing me necessary financial support which greatly reduced my burden and allowed me to focus primarily on my research in the 3rd year of my doctoral course. This will prove to be a big support to develop and built my career as an independent researcher. I am also deeply thankful to the people who helped me to fulfill my dreams. I belong to a very small village in India where people don’t even have a proper school for children, but my father was a very visionary man who taught me to see the dreams and fight against problems. As I was growing up, I realized that I am interested in physics, and I worked hard to get admission to one of the top universities in India for bachelor’s and master’s degrees. At that time, I had never dreamt of doing my Ph.D. degree and studying abroad at such a prestigious institute because I had not learned English at that time. But now I could not imagine that I will get a Ph.D. degree and write my thesis in English. There was a lot of hard time and difficulties before and after enrolling in Tokyo Tech. But it’s a journey and finally, I am close to completing it. Looking back, I can proudly say that I shall be the first girl from my village who will be a Ph.D. holder soon.
Doctoral studies are one kind of roller coaster ride with lots of high-intensity ups and downs. Therefore, it is easy to lose your motivation and focus to continue and at times you start to question your decision to undertake a Ph.D. Since I am almost at the end of my own Ph.D. journey, I thought I should share some tips on how to keep yourself motivated during your Ph.D.

1. Firstly, it is important for you to remember why you started the program in the first place. Your passion for a particular research topic, the implications of your research, is interested in bridging the gap in the common knowledge, whatever your key motivation; needs to be kept in mind throughout the Ph.D.
   
2. Since a Ph.D. is essentially a 3-year long thesis, it is important to split it into small feasible work packages or research questions. This practice is not just for getting your proposal approved, but also for you to reflect and check your progress from time to time. Looking at short-term, practical goals during your Ph.D. helps you focus and be motivated to achieve the next target allows you to focus on a particular issue at a time, and keeps you engaged throughout.
   
3. Sometimes, when you really feel uninspired or uninterested in something that you are doing, or not getting the desired results it is helpful to talk to your supervisors. They can help you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. They are a treasure of knowledge, guidance, and experience that you can leverage to get maximum results. They also understand what it is to be a Ph.D. student and they can help you overcome such a phase. Additionally, they also know your research topic thoroughly thus you must always seek their help and guidance to move forward. I would like to stress this point as much as possible to have constant communication with your supervisor and always trust them no matter what to achieve your Ph.D.
   
4. When you feel unmotivated, you should take a reasonable break as required. This helps you take a pause by shifting your attention from your current goal to the bigger picture and rethink your plan if it is not going per your expectation. This also helps you shift focus from ‘what am I doing to ‘what do I want to do? That can be a small coffee break or going to any nearby places on weekends like hiking, cycling, fishing, etc.
   
5. Last but most important is to think of the possibilities and opportunities that will potentially open when you will be done with your Ph.D. This perspective of thinking also keeps me motivated to keep working. The best thing about such thinking is that we don’t know anything for sure and hence can dream of several things that can happen.

All I just want to say is pain is temporary, but Ph.D. is forever. I hope I have provided you with some possible ways to keep yourself motivated. A doctoral program should not just be a struggle but a challenging journey that you are motivated to undertake willingly. And trust me when you will look back you will see a picture with many different colors and all pain that you suffered will suddenly start to make sense.

Message

Having a Ph.D. degree is prestigious in life so we should live this amazing journey. The important thing is to learn from experiences, successes, and failures throughout your life. I hope all adopters of Cross the border! Tokyo Tech Pioneering Doctoral Research Project can fully live and enjoy their doctoral study journey. As I have mentioned don’t give up on anything and don’t give up on yourself. I want to wish you all a bright future.