Plastic Electronics is a new technology that utilizes organic semiconductors and organic/inorganic hybrid materials as an active component for a wide range of optical and electronic devices. Organic semiconductors combine the semiconductor properties traditionally associated with inorganic materials with the more desirable properties of plastics. Moreover, the organic syntheses of these materials allow for great flexibility in the tuning of their electronic and optical properties. By combining these properties, the field of organic semiconductors has developed rapidly over the last 30 years from fundamental laboratory discovery into a significant materials and manufacturing technology for a range of thin-film electronics applications including displays, lighting, transistors and solar cells. In particular, remarkable progress has been made in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). While innovation in new organic semiconductor materials and processing techniques continues to improve the performance of organic devices, further research is required to gain crucial insights into the fundamental relationships between structure and optoelectronic properties and inform future design strategies. In this talk, the speaker will discuss the key advances on our understanding in these main challenging areas, with a particular focus on the impact of organic semiconductor nanostructures in thin films on optoelectronic and charge transport properties and hence device performance. She will also introduce the advanced nanometrology developed for organic and hybrid materials and devices including structural optical probes to elucidate the origins of operational instability.
About the speaker
Prof Ji-Seon Kim received her BSc in 1992 and MSc in Physics from Ewha Womans University in 1994. She then obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge in 2000 and started her postdoctoral research there. In 2007, she joined Imperial College London as a Lecturer and she is currently a Professor of Solid State Physics and the Director of the Plastic Electronics Centre for Doctoral Training at Imperial College London.
Prof Kim’s research focuses on the basic science and technology of Nanoscale Functional Materials such as organics, organic/inorganic hybrids, nanomaterials and related applications, as well as developing novel nanometrology for these functional materials. Her research program benefits multidisciplinary scientific background in theoretical and experimental physics and surface/interface science, which provides a unique perspective to approach the research program in molecular, polymeric, and hybrid electronic materials and devices. Her recent papers include “Raman Spectroscopy as an Advanced Structural Nanoprobe for Conjugated Molecular Semiconductors” (2017) and “Organic Photovoltaic Blends Probed by Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy” (2016).
Prof Kim held a Visiting Professorship in Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST, South Korea. Besides, she is now conducting scientific research as a technical consultant for Cambridge Display Technology Ltd.
For attendees’ attention
The lecture is free and open to all. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.
