Research

Transitioning from Photon and Charge Management in Molecular Systems to Information Science

In nature, biological light harvesting complexes use antennas molecules to harvest photons, generate excitons and then funnel them to the reaction center where their energy is used to drive photosynthesis.  Inspired by this paradigm, the Guldi group explores new strategies for

Photon Management

in solar energy harvesting, based on the transfer and manipulation of excitons in molecular systems and at hybrid interfaces.  Building on our platform of new spectroscopic / microscopic probes and molecular systems we deliver ground-breaking new insights into excitonic process between organic semiconductors, inorganic semiconductors, as well as 2D monolayer semiconductors.

As a complement we use these insights to develop a proof-of-concept demonstrations of

Charge Management,

in which we facilitate a precise control over photons that are harvested across the visible and NIR and that are converted into free charge carriers employable in photovoltaics and photocatalysis.

Our ultimate aim is to exploit molecular systems to establish a unified description of the different photon and charge management phenomena towards developing the next-generation platform for

Molecular Electronics and Quantum Information Science

that is, understanding and manipulating the acquisition, transmission, and processing of information.