Prof. Gitti L. Frey

Gitti received her Ph.D. from the Department of Materials and Interfaces at the Weizmann Institute in 1999. She spent the following 3 years as a Marie Curie Postdoc Fellow in the Optoelectronics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics, Cambridge, UK. Since September 2002 she is in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the Technion, leading the Hybrid Materials and Devices Research Group. In 2009/2010 she spent a sabbatical year as Visiting Professor in the Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden CO, USA, and as Visiting Scientist in NREL National Renewable Energy Lab, Golden CO, USA.

The research objective of the Hybrid Materials and Devices Research Group is: To co-assemble organic and inorganic precursors into opto-electronically functional hybrid materials and interfaces for high performance devices“.

Optoelectronic processes in molecules, molecular assemblies, thin films and solids are the essence of emerging technologies such as lighting and display applications, communication, and solar energy conversion. Correlating the optoelectronic properties of materials with their structure provides not only basic photo-physical understanding, but also the prospect to tailor-synthesize functional materials, leading to novel applications. In our group we design, synthesize, characterize and study optoelectronically functional organic/inorganic interfaces.

Our research spans two main fields:

  • The co-assembly of organic and inorganic building blocks into judiciously designed hybrid materials: New synthesis and processing protocols are developed to co-assemble highly hydrophobic conjugated polymers and molecules with hydrophilic inorganic precursors into high surface area, highly ordered hybrid films. The synthesis is followed by a thorough and detailed structural characterization using electron microscopy and X-ray scattering
  • Optoelectronic processes, such as charge or energy transfer, across organic/inorganic interfaces: these processes are investigated through electrical and optical (absorption and emission) measurements and by fabricating and testing corresponding devices including light emitting diodes, photovoltaic (solar) cells and electrochromic devices.

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Electron transfer across organic/inorganic interfaces

Tailored organic/inorganic interfaces in OLEDs, photovoltaic and electrochromic devices

Spontaneous interlayer formation through migration

Diffusion of small molecule through OPVs and OLEDs

ALD into OPV films for processing and characterization