CPM Seminar

Tracing electrons in organic optoelectronic materials

Sarah Burke

Departments of Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy
UBC

Organic semiconductors are appealing for optoelectronic devices like solar cells and lighting and displays due to their low fabrication cost and energy input, tunable band gaps, and mechanical characteristics like their light weight and flexibility. However, these materials made of light atoms have low dielectric constants and small spin-orbit coupling to promote (reverse) intersystem crossing, as well as strong vibrational coupling leading to excitations and charges that are strongly influenced by the local environment and details of electron-hole wavefunctions. Approaches to these challenges involve engineering electronic energy levels and frontier molecular orbitals in a way that promotes energy flow that is favourable for devices.

Organic semiconductors are appealing for optoelectronic devices like solar cells and lighting and displays due to their low fabrication cost and energy input, tunable band gaps, and mechanical characteristics like their light weight and flexibility. However, these materials made of light atoms have low dielectric constants and small spin-orbit coupling to promote (reverse) intersystem crossing, as well as strong vibrational coupling leading to excitations and charges that are strongly influenced by the local environment and details of electron-hole wavefunctions. Approaches to these challenges involve engineering electronic energy levels and frontier molecular orbitals in a way that promotes energy flow that is favourable for devices.

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2. Cochrane, K.A. et al. J. Phys. Chem. C 122, 8437-8444 (2018).
3. Mayder, D.M. et al. Chem. Mater. 34, 2624-2635 (2022).