Possible ICAM Theme: Conjugated Organic Materials
Darryl Smith
Los Alamos National Laboratory
MST-11, MS D429
Los Alamos, NM 87545
(505) 667-2056
(505) 665-4292
Strong charge-spin-lattice couplings lead to nonlinear polaronic excitations which are an underlying theme in the physical properties in a number of materials systems including conjugated organic materials. Addition of removal of an electron modifies the pi-bonding and strong nonlinear polaronic effects result. Complexity arises from the intrinsic structure of the molecular building blocks and their tendency to self-organize on a mesoscopic scale. The emergent ability to design and build the materials from the molecular level is an underlying theme of these soft condensed matter systems and offer the promise of exceptional control of their material properties. These organic materials are becoming important for in key technological areas including information display and optical communications. There are close connections between the physics governing the electronic and optical properties of these organic materials and other polaronic materials such as transition metal perovskites.