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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 by Eva! She investigated the distance–resilient conductivity in p-doped polythiophenes and compared aliphatic and glycolated sidechains. Many thanks to the groups of Christian Müller and Martijn Kemerink for the collaboration on this project!
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New group member!
We are happy to announce that Gopika Suresh started her PhD with us in September! Gopika obtained her integrated BS–MS degree from IISER Thiruvananthapuram, India and she will join our photocatalysis subgroup, aiming to understand charge carrier dynamics that underpin photocatalytic activity. All the best for the start!
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New group member!
We have a new Bachelor student! Yunjeong joined our group in September after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Sogang University, Korea. She will investigate the dynamics of electrochemical doping with us. We wish you a good start!
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Christian presents his research at the SCS Fall meeting
Christian presented his spectro-electrochemical studies on the structure–property relationships in organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors (OMIECs). Congratulations for the inspiring talk!
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Alan’s First Year Symposium
In the beginning of September, our PhD student Alan Ávila presented his First Year Symposium. Congratulations on achieving this milestone! We wish you a lot of success on your academic journey!
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Open PhD position!
We are very happy to announce that we are able to fill a PhD position in the field of spectroscopic characterization of doped organic thin films! To get more information, please refer to the attached PhD. We are looking forward to receiving your applications! PhD position in the field of spectroscopic characterization of doped organic […]
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Eva successfully defended her thesis!!!
New PhD in the house! Last Friday, Eva successfully defended her PhD thesis on the conductivity of doped organic semiconductors! Thanks so much for the incredible insights into the charge transport on different length and temperature scales! You did a great job and we are very proud of you!
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New group photo
Check out our new group photo 2025! We were growing over the past months and in the next weeks, we will present our new group members in detail. Stay tuned!
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New research published!
We are happy to announce our new publication by Kaishuai about the differences between copolymerization and physical mixing of glycolated and alkoxylated polymers in their OECT performance. Many thanks to the group of Wouter Maes for the collaboration on this project!
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Join FemtoMat on Bluesky
We are starting with our transition from X to Bluesky, and we would be happy to see you all over there!