The Department of Physics and Astronomy is proud to present our first colloquium talk of the Fall 2015 semester featuring Dr. Cody Schlenker. Dr. Schlenker will present his talk “Understanding and Controlling Excited State Processes in Organic and Hybrid Photovoltaic Materials” on Tuesday, August 25, at 4:10 p.m. in Webster B17.
Meet with or guest speaker and enjoy refreshments before the talk at 3:45-4:10 p.m. in the foyer on floor G above the lecture hall.
Abstract: The cascade of photophysical processes that follow photon absorption in next-generation solid-state optical devices such as organic and hybrid photovoltaics largely determines device efficiency. We explore the states responsible for these processes in a range of organic and hybrid materials by using excited state optical absorption spectroscopy and field-dependent excited state spectroscopy. In all-organic systems, we find evidence for a connection between nanostructure and charge recombination mechanisms that appears to be linked to the susceptibility of different interfacial spin states to be influenced by an electric field. Our observations suggest new avenues for the potential of molecular design to control charge recombination and charge separation. We will also discuss our recent work focused on new molecular motifs to modulate the nature of interfacial excited states in hybrid perovskite devices.
Cody Schlenker is the Washington Research Foundation Innovation Assistant Professor in Chemistry and Clean Energy at University of Washington in Seattle. His group integrates spectroscopy, synthesis, and electrical characterization to develop new insight into the mechanisms governing energy transduction in heterogeneous materials relevant for solar energy harvesting and storage devices like organic and organic/inorganic photovoltaics, meso-structured next-generation rechargeable batteries, and metal-free photocatalytic systems.
