Molecular electronics is bottom up approach for the fabrication of junctions containing function molecular components capable of replicating or surpassing their top-down semi-conductor counterparts. Whilst single molecule junctions are uniquely placed to inform our fundamental knowledge of molecular transport – often dominated by quantum effects – practical realization of molecular-based devices requires scalability to controlled thin-film architectures. Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) deposition has long been the fabrication technique of choice for highly-ordered molecular electronics films.
In this talk Benjamin Robinson will give a brief overview of the application of LB deposition to the realisation of molecular electronics films. He will also discuss the state-of-the-art of LB for next-generation applications focusing on his own research interests of quantum-enhanced thermoelectric materials.
Presenter: Benjamin Robinson is a senior lecturer in Quantum Nanotechnology in the department of physics at Lancaster University and deputy director of Lancaster University’s Materials Science Institute.
After a first degree in Physics from Sheffield University, he pursued a Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Geoff Ashwell in physical chemistry investigating molecular diodes formed by Langmuir-Blodgett deposition and molecular self-assembly. For this work, he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Phillip Adams Memorial Prize. Following post-doctoral positions in a number of leading molecular electronics groups, in 2015 Ben was awarded a highly competitive 50th Anniversary lectureship at Lancaster University where he has built an interdisciplinary group of Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers working on both fundamental studies and applied applications of quantum-enhanced ultrathin-films.
