Video: CaSTL Seminar: When Like Meets Unlike - Oliver Monti

Professor Oliver L.A. Monti was a guest speaker at the CaSTL Center March 22, 2018 and delivered a talk on "When Like Meets Unlike:  Electronic Structure and Dynamics at Interfaces". 

Abstract: Molecular interfaces play a dominant role in much of Chemistry, and are of vital importance in diverse applications such as sensing, catalysis and electron transfer. Yet the mere fact of coupling two fundamentally different materials, e.g. a molecular solid with an inorganic substrate, makes interfaces typically difficult to understand, and robust means to tailor electronic structure and dynamics at interfaces are still missing.  In the context of organic semiconductors, considerable progress has been made for physisorptive, weakly interacting systems, as well as in a few select more strongly coupled instances. For the latter, general approaches are however still missing. Here, I will show how both electronic structure and magnetic texture can be tailored and understood by judicious choice of the organic semiconductor. I will discuss several case studies of chemisorption that use designer molecule-surface interactions at organic-metal and hybrid organic-inorganic semiconductor interfaces to control electronic interactions and spin texture. This opens new pathways towards an improved understanding of organic semiconductor interfaces even in strongly interacting cases.  Finally, I will show how advanced x-ray spectroscopies enable us to understand carrier dynamics on extremely fast time-scales, highlighted in the context of carrier flow across a weakly coupled interface.

Please view the talk abstract and the talk link in its entirety.

https://youtu.be/v5l4mvASGc8

Oliver is Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, where he is over LabMonti.  Research in LabMonti is focused on obtining a detailed understanding of interfacial processes in organic electronic devices such as organic photovolltaic cells, organic thermoelectrics or organic spin valves.  Research also in LabMonti seeks to elucidate the chemistry and physics of carriers in organic semiconductors at interfaces on the short length - and time-scales present in organic photovoltaic, spin and thermoelectric devices.  Oliver has received the following awards and honors: Swiss national Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Greendale Senior Scholar, 3M Non-Tenured faculty Awardee and College of Science Distinguished Early Career teaching Award.