Broadly tuneable probe source for transient absorption spectroscopy over sub-millisecond time windows

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Harvesting solar energy is a key endeavour for this century as we face ever-decreasing fossil fuel world reserves and ever-increasing environmental crises emanating from greenhouse gas production. Solar cell technology is currently based on silicon. Devices used for human energy consumption yield solar power conversion efficiencies of around 10%, which is sufficient to meet a significant fraction of energy demands in the industrialised world, but manufacturing such devices costs too much energy and produces greenhouse gases. In order to recover such energetic costs, three to four years of continuous operation are required. This energy payback represents a serious obstacle to widespread implementation of this technology other than those with long lifetime expectancy, i.e. 25 to 30 years. In order for solar energy to have a more substantial impact on our energy requirements, we need to find alternative technologies that reduce energy payback periods and device processing costs. Our research group focuses on conjugated polymers, which now provide a technologically viable class of solution-processable, film-forming semiconductors.