One of the fundamental components of electronic devices are materials that can be switched on or off. Transistors are devices that can be switched by the application of an electric field and we typically own billions of these in our phones, PCs and other devices. To extend the scope of the resulting functional devices into new possibilities, we study systems that can be switched by other methods, such as magnetic field, pressure or light. Specifically, our work is based on the design and synthesis of new electronically-delocalised transition metal complexes, organic molecules and nanomaterials, as the building blocks for switchable semiconducting materials and thin films.
Figure: Magnetoresistance response, showing the reduction of resistivity of an evaporated molecular film upon application of a magnetic field.
We thoroughly characterise new molecules and materials using electrochemical, spectroscopic, spectroelectrochemical, computational, magnetic and structural methods. We form thin films of the materials and study these in the areas of field-effect transistors, spintronics, photoconductivity, electrochromic properties and other functional devices.