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INSPIRE Grant Report by Postdoc Mike Hambsch, Stanford University, CA, USA

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From April to June 2017 I had the chance to work for 3 months with the Salleo Research Group at Stanford University. The research visit was financed in part by the cfaed INSPIRE grant and in part by the Graduate Academy through a travel grant for short-term research stays abroad. During my time in the group I was trying to shed light on the charge carrier transport in thin films of semiconducting polymers synthesized as part of the Organic/Polymer Path in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research.  

The main reason for my visit of the group was the application of charge-modulation spectroscopy to our polymers. This technique has only been established in a few research groups around the world and gives information about the degree of freedom charge carriers have close to the semiconductor/dielectric interface based on the optical absorption of the carriers. The results will help us optimizing the device performance of field-effect transistors.

Furthermore, right next to Stanford University is the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a Department of Energy user facility for very bright electromagnetic radiation. During my 3 months I was lucky enough to get multiple days and nights at the facility to investigate the film structure of our materials by x-ray scattering techniques. This allows us to correlate the structural and electronic properties of our semiconducting polymers.

Mike Hambsch studied Electrical Engineering at Chemnitz University of Technology. After working in industry and at the Institute for Print and Media Technology in Chemnitz he joined the Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics (The University of Queensland) in 2010 to pursue his PhD. In 2014 he was awarded his PhD and continued working at the centre as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Since August 2015 he is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Prof. Stefan Mannsfeld at the cfaed. Mike’s research interest is on organic electronic devices with a focus on photovoltaics and transistors.

Stanford from above

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