Prof Ifor Samuel

Prof Ifor Samuel

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 3114
Email
idws@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Research areas

Polymer optoelectronics.


Most polymers, or plastics, are electrical insulators. However there is one class of polymers, known as 'conjugated' polymers which can conduct electricity. These materials are semiconductors, and open new directions in optoelectronics. They combine novel semiconducting electronic properties with the processing flexibility of polymers. When a voltage is applied to them, they emit light, providing an important new display technology that could give flat and even flexible displays. Semiconducting polymers can be used to make field effect transistors, solar cells, and even lasers. In the polymer optoelectronics group we seek to understand the physics of these remarkable materials and devices, with the aim of improving them. The research has both fundamental and applied aspects, and the main activities are: - optical amplifiers - wavelength scale microstructure - new materials - charge transport in LEDs - understanding the light emission process


I am also researching fluorescence and its applications in medicine and biology.


For further information, see the Organic Semiconductor Centre and the Polymer Optoelectronics group website.

PhD supervision

  • David Webster
  • Madeleine Fisher
  • Yuchen Zhang
  • Thomas Sayner
  • Liam King
  • Egle Tankeleviciute
  • Benedict Paulukiewicz

Selected publications

 

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