Research

Our research is about novel semiconductor materials and their application in information technology. Our approach is multidisciplinary involving concepts and expertise from physics, material sciences, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and chemistry. The devices of current interest are organic and oxide thin film transistors, nanostructured silicon photovoltaic cells and photoelectric detectors. These devices are used as characterization tools for fundamental charge transport and photophysics studies. They are also of practical interest for transducers in bioelectronic interfaces, alternative energy sources, low cost and large area flexible circuits and flexible X-ray detectors.

In the following you can find more information describing the different research areas.

1.) Ionizing radiation sensors

Semiconductors are the active material to convert high energy photons or other particles into electronic signals as happens in x-ray imaging or dosimeters. Our research regards novel materials that combine efficient optoelectronic conversion combined with the possibility to process the materials on large areas and on flexible substrates. Continue reading ...

2.) Nanomaterials for bioelectronics

Flexible, biocompatible electronic materials and semiconductors are wanted to create a novel generation of bioelectronic interfaces. Such interfaces will be at the heart of future medical devices that allow to record and stimulate in a low-invasive manner from the central and peripheral nervous system or to transduce directly biochemical signals. Continue reading ...

3.) Nanostructured materials for photovoltaics

By downscaling the size of active materials to the nanoscale we are able to tune and augment the electronic properties of traditional semiconducting materials. For this reason, nanostructured materials hold the key to further optimize the performance of photovoltaic devices for energy harvesting. In our group we investigate the detailed physical mechanisms that control optoelectronic properties at the nano-scale.

4.) Smart electronic textiles

We have the vision to integrate electronic functionality into textiles. Materials from organic electronics are an ideal candidate for this objective as they combine elastic mechanical properties and solvent based processing with semiconducting behaviour. In our research we exploit organic electronics to build electronic sensors and circuits on textile substrates. Detailed physical investigations are performed to understand how the complex 3D shapes of textile fibers impacts on electronic properties.