Mission
- Answer fundamental questions about the basic properties of spin excitations in organic semiconductors (OSEC).
- Apply this knowledge toward development and fabrication of spin-related OSEC devices.
Why Organic Spintronics?
- Rich physics from the precursor polaron-pair state: spin-mediated organic electronics.
- Rich chemistry: OSEC are lightweight, environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and very versatile.
- Engineering and commercializationpotential: several existing companies focus on organic optoelectronics.
Questions
The goal of IRG-2 in Organic Spintronics is to provide insight to the following questions:
- Can we control the ratio between spin triplet and singlet excitations in OSEC and organic devices?
- Can we control and manipulate the interaction between spin-aligned carriers and nuclear spin polarization?
- Can organic-ferromagnet electrodes serve as spin injectors into OSEC?
- What are the temperature limitations of organic spintronics?
- Can we control the spin-injected current by an external electric field?
- Is there a Hanle effect in organic spin valves?
- How do we make devices stable?
Potential Applications
- Organic spin-valves → inexpensive mass-producible magnetic sensors (data storage).
- Spin-organic LED with color tuned by magnetic field → displays.
- Organic optoelectronic devices → environmental sensors (e.g., electronic properties change as a function of imbibed gas).
- Organic photovoltaics → more efficient, inexpensive, and robust solar cells.
