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Who we are
We are a young and dynamic research group based in Bern, Switzerland, and led by Prof. Natalie Banerji. In our group, chemists as well as physicists and material scientists work side by side to understand and optimize electronic devices based on organic electronic materials. In addition, we combine the best of two worlds by welcoming researchers from all over the world and by teaching local students from Bern.
This combination of different backgrounds and experiences forms a powerful symbiosis that enables us to understand the underlying principles of charge transport in the materials we study.
Our research interests
Our objective is to understand fundamental material properties (e.g., light–matter interactions, electron transfer processes, charge transport, molecular recognition) of organic and hybrid semiconductors, with applications in new generation solar cells, organic transistors, and organic bioelectronics. The current gap between missing fundamental understanding and the blind development of applications needs to be filled in order to achieve intelligent design of high-performance devices.
Our research revolves around the central question of what happens on the ultrashort time scale and ultrasmall length scale in organic solids to induce macroscopic function in devices, and how this can be optimized. Experimentally, we use a complementary palette of techniques combining (time-resolved) spectroscopy, pulsed photocurrent methods, terahertz experiments, Stark-effect spectroscopy, and device testing.
News
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New research published!
We are happy to announce our new publication entitled “Direct visualization of the charge transfer state dynamics in dilute-donor organic photovoltaic blends”, published in Nature Communications. Gareth investigated the interconversion dynamics between charge transfer state charges (CTCs) and separated charges (SCs). Many thanks to the group of Frank Ortmann for the collaboration on this project!
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Natalie presents at “Chemie am Samstag”
The lecture series “Chemie am Samstag” at the DCBP is targeted towards school kids and the science-interested public and gives them insight into state-of-the-art research. This is why we are happy to announce that Natalie presented our group’s research there in the beginning of November. We hope to see some of you in our group […]
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New research published!
We are pleased to announce a new publication entitled “Sensitive Self-Driven Single-Component Organic Photodetector Based on Vapor-Deposited Small Molecules” where we collaborated with Jakob to investigate a single-component organic photodetector (OPD). Many thanks to Johannes Benduhn and Karl Leo for the collaboration on this project.
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OMIEC community in Bern
Last week, we had the pleasure to welcome the OMIEC community in Bern. We had the possibility to show our fantastic labs and our research to a lot of PIs in the field all at once. Thank you to everyone involved in the planning! It was a pleasure to host you all!
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Isabelle at CyBioEl 2024 Conference in Cyprus
End of October, Isabelle traveled to Cyprus to present her talk on the transport characteristics of in-plane oriented organic mixed-electronic conductors. Thanks for your contribution and the very nice talk! Well done!
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Kaishuai, Maxi and Christian at MATSUS Fall Meeting in Lausanne
Kaishuai and Maxi gave a talk at the OMIEC symposium at the MATSUS Fall Meeting in Lausanne, and Christian contributed to the conference with a poster. Thanks to all of you for your contributions, well done! Also many thanks to Olivier and Natalie for the fantastic symposium organization!
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Natalie at Nature Conference in Nanjing
Natalie had the privilege to attend the Nature Conference on Perovskite and Organic Photovoltaics in Nanjing. Great Science, great company and great food! Immense thank you to the organizers.
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New research published!
We are pleased to share our new paper entitled ”Free Charge Carrier Generation by Visible-Light-Absorbing Organic Spacers in Ruddlesden–Popper Layered Perovskites”. Combining multiple spectroscopic techniques, the increase of light harvesting and the generation and spatial separation of charge carriers in the new synthesized (NDI-DAE)2PbI4 has been demonstrated. Many thanks to Kevin Sivula group at EPFL […]
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New research published!
We are very pleased to announce our latest publication. Olivier investigated PEDOT copolymers with oligo(ethylene oxy) side-chains and found stability and performance improvements. Many thanks to the group of John Reynolds for making this collaboration possible!
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Group excursion to Aquatis in Lausanne!
For this year’s group excursion, we went to Aquatis in Lausanne where we marveled at exotic wildlife and sea life animals. The excursion was then rounded off by a dinner at Natalie’s place. Huge thanks to Natalie for making this great experience possible!