Presently, to attain different electronic properties in the organic semiconductor (OSC) materials, the common approach is to vary their chemical structures. This put a formidable task in front of materials scientist as the accurate device demands the reoptimization of device architectures to ensure its compatibility with the selected OSC material. In this direction, a novel approach is to introduce the chiral OSC materials that offers the usage of different supramolecular organization of its enantiomeric or racemic forms, hence provide exactly same molecular properties but differential electronic properties. The charge transport studies in such chiral systems can open a new pathway for such supramolecularly assembled chiral organizations where the chirality can be utilized as a potential tool to optimize the electronic properties of OSCs in future device applications. These type of materials are of great interest to explore in spintronic devices.

Examples of photoswitchable molecules

A photochromic compound can change its configuration or structure upon irradiation with light. Several examples of photochromic compounds include: azobenzene, spiropyran, merocyanine, diarylethene, spirooxazine, fulgide, hydrazone, nobornadiene, thioindigo, acrylamide-azobenzene-quaternary ammonia, donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts, stilbene, etc.

Our lab focus is to design such photochromic molecules and related functional materials.