Photophysics of radical-based organic semiconductors for spin-optoelectronic devices

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Radical materials have unpaired electrons, leading to unusual physics that could be utilised in next-generation organic electronics. While most organic materials contain all-paired electrons, the unpaired electron has a quantum mechanical spin which gives rise to magnetism and doublet character of the radicals. In combination with efficient light absorption and emission, these properties can be used in technologies which range from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and photovoltaics (OPV) with eliminated triplet losses, to photomagnetic devices and molecular-scale electronics for data information transfer. The integration of radicals into these applications requires a detailed understanding of their fundamental energy and electron transfer physics, which will be explored by state-of-the-art and newly designed optical spectroscopy techniques on femto- to microsecond timescales. The initial focus will be on the photoredox and photovoltaic behaviour of radical-based systems, for which utilisation of the doublet-spin manifold of excited states offers enhanced efficiency limits. A second target is to interface these materials with ferromagnetic electrodes for spin-polarised charge injection in optoelectronics and spintronics devices. These two efforts will be combined towards spin-photovoltaics with radicals and other organic materials to achieve generation of spin-polarised currents under light irradiation.