Vibrational Control in Organic Semiconductors

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) are carbon-based materials with great potential for photovoltaic (OPV) and light-emitting diode (OLED) applications.

This project will improve our understanding of how the vibrational motions of the constituent atoms and bond in OSCs control their optical and electronic properties.

To achieve this, I will develop new optical spectroscopy techniques that use ultrafast pulses of light and mid-infrared radiation to probe how vibrational modes interact with the electronic excited states in OSCs.

I will address two key issues with these new techniques: 1. the slow interconversion of spin-singlet and triplet excited states that reduces the performance of OLEDs; and 2. the low luminescence efficiencies of narrow band gap (