The Materials Science of Organic Semiconductors: Microstructure and Properties

Friday, May 23, 2014 - 3:00 p.m. to Saturday, May 24, 2014 - 2:55 p.m.
McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium

ChEMS Seminar

Prof. Alberto Salleo

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Stanford University, Stanford, CA

 

Organic semiconductors are a promising materials family for number of technologies including solar cells, LEDs, transistors and sensors. While these materials have been around for a while, their understanding has been hampered by the fact that they have not been studied in detail as “materials”. That is, the preeminent role of the microstructure has often been overlooked. In this seminar, I will present cases where we have conducted investigations precisely aimed at elucidating how the microstructure of organic semiconductors affects their properties. I will show results pertaining to the effect of grain-boundaries, degree of crystallinity and crystalline perfection on charge transport. I will also discuss how structural order controls the ability of organic semiconductors to generate a photocurrent in solar cells. Our work suggests that there are many opportunities to apply classical Materials Science concepts to advance our understanding of organic semiconductors.



Bio: Alberto Salleo is currently an Associate Professor of Materials Science at Stanford University. Alberto Salleo graduated as a Fulbright Fellow with a PhD in Materials Science from UC Berkeley in 2001 working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser-induced optical breakdown in fused silica. From 2001 to 2005 Salleo was first post-doctoral research fellow and successively member of research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he worked with Bob Street on device and materials physics of disordered and polymeric semiconductors. In 2005 Salleo joined the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Stanford as an Assistant Professor. While at Stanford, Salleo won the NSF Career Award, the 3M Untenured Faculty Award, the SPIE Early Career Award and the Tau Beta Pi Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Salleo is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Electronic Materials and a Principal Editor of MRS Communications.