Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 5: Organic Semiconductors I: Solar Cells A (jointly with HL, DS)

CPP 5.1: Topical Talk

Montag, 14. März 2011, 14:00–14:30, ZEU 222

Light harvesting in single polymer chains and inorganic nanostructures — •John M. Lupton — Institut für Experimentelle und Angewandte Physik, Universität Regensburg — Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Optimization of materials for energy conversion applications requires an understanding of intermolecular heterogeneity to ultimately formulate synthetic approaches to maximizing the fraction of a particular subensemble. Single molecule spectroscopy can offer such insight as an exquisitely sensitive tool to unravel the underlying complexity of organic semiconductors. In the context of solar cells, for example, the technique can help to identify purely intramolecular exciton migration and charge separation processes.

Recently, we have explored the migration of excitons in single molecules as a function of the initial excitation energy, thus offering information on thermalization processes within the polymer chain. The approach allows a direct spectroscopic identification of the absorption of individual chromophores on the chain, whereas mere emission tends to provide information only on the lowest-energy unit in the intramolecular excitonic cascade [1].

The heterogeneity in light-harvesting characteristics is particularly pronounced in semiconductor nanostructures, where particle morphology directly influences the heterojunction band structure and the excitonic spectrum [2].

[1]Walter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 167401 (2009).

[2]Borys et al., Science (in press).