Controlled Superstructures in vacuum-deposited Organic Semiconductors

The functionality of organic semiconductor thin film devices depends in most cases to a significant way on the microstructure of the film and the orientation of the molecules. One the one hand, this poses a challenge on the field, on the other hand, the ability to combine materials with very different functional and structural properties in a single device is unique to molecular systems and presents a wealth of opportunities that have so far not been fully exploited.
The goal of this project is to investigate the microstructure of molecular blends and to find ways to obtain regimes favouring isolated molecules, superstructures and phase separated domains. The application focus is on molecular spintronics and organic solar cells, given similar material systems and characterisation techniques, but different microstructural requirements. The PhD student will be able to employ a range of unique in-situ and ex-situ characterisation techniques to determine the microstructure during thin film growth and post-deposition to correlate microstructure with device properties.
Given the close connection of microstructure and device performance for many organic electronics devices, we see many synergies with other PE-CDT research projects and areas of research in organic electronics, as well as high relevance for industry partners.