The Molecular Materials and Nanosystems group is an interdepartmental research group at the TU/e active in the Department of Applied Physics and Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry. It brings together researchers from these two fields and aims at establishing a coherent research program on the physics and chemistry of nanostructured electronic molecular materials and nanosized organic and inorganic systems.

The objective of the research is to investigate and develop functional molecules, macromolecules, materials, and nanostructures with special electrical or optical properties that may find future application in advanced technological applications such as transistors, light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells, and data storage. The interest for these functional molecular materials and nanosystems is motivated by the scientific challenge they pose to physics and chemistry in which miniaturization of devices to the molecular level and the role and use of nanoscopic dimensions are intriguing. A wide range of subjects and techniques are used to accomplish these goals.

Synthetic organic, inorganic, and polymer chemistry are used to prepare new molecules and materials that have been designed to fulfill new functionalities. Presently attention is focused on low-band gap polymers, n-type conducting polymers, conjugated block copolymers and inorganic and metal nanoparticles.

Scanning tunneling microscopy is utilized for example in studying nanocontacts, in elucidating the mechanism of friction on a nanoscale, and in inelastic tunneling spectroscopy to observe vibration spectra of single molecules. These experimental studies are complemented with advanced theoretical calculations. Atomic force microscopy is used to study the morphology of conjugated polymer layers and of single polymer chains.

Optical spectroscopy on time scales from 100 fs to 10 ms is being performed to visualize the primary photoexcitations in molecular materials and molecules and to investigate the kinetics of energy and electron transfer and recombination reactions. Furthermore we study phosphorescence of triplet states in conjugated molecules and use high-resolution energy electron-loss spectroscopy to study vibrational and electronic transitions of oriented molecules at crystalline surfaces. Time-resolved spectroscopy on working opto-electronic devices is being developed.

The preparation and characterization of opto-electronic devices such as light-emitting diodes and solar cells, and more recently also IR detectors, transistors, and memory devices is an important part of our work. It completes the line molecule-macromolecule-material-machine and enables to test new designs and ideas for macroscopic functionality. In this respect we focus on aspects of the role of interfaces by studying contacts with ion-beam techniques and the morphology of the active layer. We investigate the transport and injection mechanisms of charges by current voltage characteristics and impedance spectroscopy.

Members of the group

Chemistry          Physics