The Opto-Electronic Materials section is part of the Chemical Engineering Department (formerly DelftChemTech) of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. Our key interest is to study the nature and dynamics of short-lived intermediate excited states (excitons) and charge carriers within complex materials such as functional polymers, self-assembling molecular aggregates, inorganic nanoparticles, inorganic/organic composites and DNA. There is general interest in the opto-electronic properties of these materials because of their (potential) applications in devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors and nanoscale molecular electronics. In order to improve the performance of these devices, knowledge about the factors that govern the properties of excitons and excess charges is essential. 

The scientific staff of the group consists of Prof. dr. Laurens Siebbeles, Dr. Ferdinand Grozema, Dr. Arjan Houtepen, Dr. Tom Savenije and Dr. Juleon Schins 

• Breakthrough in search for new quantum dot materials for highly efficient solar cells

  Researchers from our lab and Toyota Motor Company, Europe, have found that a single photon can generate three mobile electrons in layered structures of quantum dots that are coupled in a special way. The unconventional process of carrier multiplication is highly promising for exploitation in a new generation of cheap and very efficient solar cells. The original work in the journal Nano Letters has been highlighted by Nature Materials and Physics Today.

• Unity quantum yield of photogenerated mobile charge carriers in strongly coupled PbSe quantum-dot films
  

  More information can be found in our article published in Nature Nanotechnology and here

• Rubicon Grant for Aleksey Korcherzhenko

  Our former PhD student Aleksey Kocherzhenko received a Rubicon grant from NWO for a 2-year post-doctoral stay in the group of Prof. Birgitta Whaley at UC Berkeley and study the "Effects of the Environment on Charge and Energy Transport in Molecular Materials". 

• Top 10 most cited papers in Nano Letters

  Our paper on carrier multiplication in PbSe quantum dots belongs to the top 10 most cited papers in the journal Nano Letters (as of March 2011)
  In Spite of Recent Doubts Carrier Multiplication Does Occur in PbSe Nanocrystals
  M. Tuan Trinh, Arjan J. Houtepen, Juleon M. Schins, Tobias Hanrath, Jorge Piris, Walter Knulst, Albert P. L. M. Goossens and Laurens D. A. Siebbeles
  Nano Letters (2008) 8 (6), pp 1713–1718
  Publication Date (Web): May 20, 2008 (Letter)
  DOI: 10.1021/nl0807225
  

• Book on molecular wires, edited by Laurens Siebbeles and Ferdinand Grozema

  This new book, entitled "Charge and exciton transport through molecular wires" brings together the work of leading scientist in the fields of electron transfer, energy transfer and molecular electronics and has been published by Wiley-VCH. Apart from two chapters by Fedinand Grozema and Laurens Siebbeles, the book includes contributions from Mark Ratner, Daniel Frisbie, Tim Swager, Michael Wasielewski and many others.
  More information on the website of Wiley:eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-3527325018,descCd-description.html