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Our research focuses on understanding the fundamental electronic processes, such as exciton transport and charge transfer, in molecular solids, conjugated polymers, organic-inorganic hybrid systems and 2-D layered crystals. These materials can be potentially used in next generation devices for applications ranging from light harvesting (e.g. solar energy, photocatalysis) to flexible electronics. However, the lack of fundamental understandings in the electron dynamics of these materials can hinder future applications. Using novel experimental techniques such as time-resolved two photon photoemission spectroscopy, time-resolved electrical measurements and optical spectroscopy, we probe the dynamics of photoexcited electrons and molecules in an ultrafast timescale (10-14 – 10-9 s). A better understanding of these processes will help us to design cost-effective ways to produce energy.
Research sponsored by:
Recent Research Projects
Full publication list can be found at:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YPp5RbUAAAAJ&hl=en
1. Coherent Exciton Transport and Charge Transfer in Organic Semiconductors
Selected Publication:
Kattle, B., Qin, L., Kafle, T. R., & Chan, W. -L.
Graphene Field-Effect Transistor as a High-Throughput Platform to Probe Charge Separation at Donor-Acceptor Interfaces
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9, 1633-1641 (2018)
Wang, T., Kafle, T., Kattel, B., & Chan, W.-L.
A Multi-Dimensional View of Charge Transfer Excitons at Organic
Donor-Acceptor Interfaces
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 4098-4106 (2017)
Wang, T., Kafle, T., Kattel, B., & Chan, W.-L.,
Observation of an Ultrafast Exciton Hopping Channel in Organic Semiconducting Crystals
J. Phys. Chem. C, 120, 7491-7499 (2016)
Wang, T., & Chan, W. L.,
Dynamical Localization Limiting the Coherent Transport Range of Excitons in Organic Crystal.
J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 5, 1812-1818 (2014)
2. Hybrid organic-2D van der Waals interfaces
Selected Publication:
Kafle, T. R., Kattel, B., Yao, P., Zereshki, P., Zhao, H., & Chan, W. -L.
Effect of the Interfacial Energy Landscape on Photo-induced Charge
Generation at the ZnPc-MoS2 Interface
J. Am. Chem. Soc., 141, 11328-11336 (2019) [Press Release]
Kafle, T. R., Kattel, B., Lane, S., Wang, T., Zhao, H., & Chan, W. -L.
Charge Transfer Exciton and Spin Flipping at Organic-Transition Metal
Dichalcogenide Interface
ACS Nano, 11, 10184-10192 (2017)
Biancardi, A., Caraiani, C., Chan, W.-L., & Caricato, M.
How Number of Layers and Relative Position Modulate the Interlayer Electron Transfer in π-Staked 2D Materials
J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 8, 1365-1370 (2017)
Wang, T., Liu, Q., Caraiani, C., Zhang, Y., Wu, J., & Chan, W.-L.
Effect of Interlayer Coupling on Ultrafast Charge Transfer from Semiconducting Molecules to Mono- and Bilayer Graphene
Phys. Rev. Appl. 4, 014016 (2015)
3. Hybrid-organometallic perovskite, nano-materials optoelectronic devices
Selected Publication:
Qin, L., Wu, L., Kattel, B., Li, C., Zhang, Y., Hou, Y., Wu, J., & Chan, W. –L.
Using Bulk-Heterojunction and Selective Electron Trapping to Enhance
the Responsivity of Perovskite-Graphene Photodetector
Adv. Funct. Mater., 27, 1704173 (2017).
Gong, M., Liu, Q., Cook, B., Kattel, B., Wang, T., Chan, W.-L., Ewing, D., Casper, M., Stramel, A., & Wu, J.
All-printable ZnO quantum dots/Graphene van der Waals heterostructures for ultrasensitive detection of ultraviolet light
ACS Nano, 11, 4114-4123 (2017).
PI: Wai-Lun Chan
Graduate Students:
Fatimah Rudayni
Kushal Rijal
Ghadah Alkhalifah
Neno Fuller
Elizabeth Udeh
Fatima Lariz
Undergraduate Students:
Madeline Dopp
Previous Members:
Graduate Students:
Shanika Wanigasekara (at Intel)
Bhupal Kattel (at Intel)
Tika Kafle (postdoc at University of Colorado Boulder)
Postdoc:
Ti Wang (researcher at Wuhan University)
Visiting PhD student:
Liang Qin (lecturer at Beijing Jiaotong University)
Undergraduate student:
Jack Water
James Allen
Aaron Gehrke (graduate student at University of Washington)
Jonathan Bush
Dalton Jones
Claudiu Caraiani (graduate student at University of Bucharest)
Will Burg (graduate student at Univ. of Texas, Austin)
Cole Lindsey (graduate student at KU)
Published Manuscript:
Deformable Molecular Crystal on 2D Crystal: A New Way to Build Nanoscale Periodic Trapping Sites for Interlayer Excitons
Kushal Rijal, Stephanie Amos, Pavel Valencia-Acuna, Fatimah Rudayni, Neno Fuller, Hui Zhao, Hartwin Peelaers, Wai-Lun Chan
ACS Nano 17, 7775-7786 (2023)
10.1021/acsnano.3c00541
Endothermic Charge Separation Occurs Spontaneously in Non-Fullerene Acceptor/Polymer Bulk Heterojunction
Kushal Rijal, Neno Fuller, Fatimah Rudayni, Nan Zhang, Xiaobing Zuo, Cindy L. Berrie, Hin-Lap Yip, Wai-Lun Chan
submitted to Adv. Mater. (2024)