We actively pursue understanding of the physics of organic solar cells and light emitting diodes, creating novel devices, and inventing and using new characterization methods with a particular emphasis on applications to organic devices. Our work is by its very nature interdisciplinary – spanning physics, chemistry and materials science. The group consists of a mix of graduate and undergraduate students, as well as post docs.

H. Ade was informed by NCSU VC Lomax that he has been named an Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award recipient for 2011-2012. This award is one of the highest honors that a faculty member can receive at NC State.

A manuscript has been selected for the cover of Advanced Energy Materials.

“Absolute measurement of domain composition and nanoscale size distribution explains performance in PTB7:PC71BM solarcells” by B.A. Collins, Z. Li, J.R. Tumbleston, E. Gann, C.R. McNeill, and H. Ade. DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201200377.

Manuscript pdf,

Supporting Information pdf

Extending his current success in X-ray science and organic electronics, Harald Ade is venturing out into the beverage industry. Just in time for the Holiday season, his new brand of festive fruit juices will liven the pallets and warm the bellies of revelers seeking the Christmas spirit.

“My physics research into solving the world’s energy [...]

As part of the Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering School at the Advanced Light Source’s Users Meeting, Eliot Gann gave an invited Talk titled: Grazing Soft X-rays in a Grazing Incidence Geometry. He presented how using soft x-rays in a a GISAXS experiment, it is possible to [...]

Work with the Hou group at the Chinese Academy of Sciences was recently published in Advanced Materials.
“From binary to ternary solvent: Morphology fine-tuning of D/A blends in PDPP3T-based polymer solar cells”

by L. Ye, S. Zhang, W. Ma*, B. Fan, X. Guo, Y. Huang, H. Ade, and J. Hou*.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.201202855/abstract

Organic thin film transistor work recently published in Applied Physics Letters.

“Influence of dielectric-dependent interfacial widths on device performance in top-gate P(NDI2OD-T2) field-effect transistors” by H. Yan, T. Schuettfort, A.J. Kronemeijer, C.R. McNeill, and H. Ade. LINK.

Work with the McGehee group at Stanford University was recently published in Advanced Energy Materials.

“The importance of fullerene percolation in the mixed regions of polymer-fullerene bulk heterojunction solar cells” by J.A. Bartelt, Z.M. Beiley, E.T. Hoke, W.R. Mateker, J.D. Douglas, B.A. Collins, J.R. Tumbleston, K.R. Graham, A. Amassian, H. Ade, J.M.J. Fréchet, [...]

Hongping passed his thesis defense titled “Correlating Interfacial and Bulk Nanostructure with Performance of Organic Electronic Devices” on Jun. 26, 2012.

Congratulations to Hongping!

☜Hongping at his defense

Anne Watson is the winner of this year’s McCormick Award for Undergraduate Research in Physics for her work bringing Organic Thin Film Transistors to the Ade lab, as well as for an investigation into how the morphology of P3HT in different solvents affects OTFT device peformance. The award is presented annually to a graduating senior in physics recognizing outstanding undergraduate research, and is one of three senior awards given annual to graduating seniors from NC State in the Physics Department.

Our article ”Polarized X-ray scattering reveals non-crystalline orientational ordering in organic films” is now officially published in Nature Materials. Combining molecular resonances with orientation-sensitive polarization of x-rays, we have used scattering to measure the lengthscale and intensity with which small molecules and polymers order in thin films prepared identical to devices such as organic field effect transistors and organic solar cells.  Notably, this technique is sensitive to both crystalline and non-crystalline material and is able to probe for ordering in material that diffraction techniques cannot reach.