The Intersection of Organic and Hybrid Materials for Electronics and Optoelectronics

The field of organic electronics has seen enormous progress - from the early use of organic photoconductors in xerography, to the discovery of conducting polymers, to the successful commercialization of organic light emitting diodes that are now ubiquitous in mobile phones, smart watches, and other devices. At the same time, the optoelectronic properties of inorganic/organic hybrid materials, such as organometal halide perovskites and many 2D materials, are garnering increasing scientific and technological interest, and share many intellectual links with the organic electronics field. The myriad possible uses for these materials in solar energy harvesting, displays, flexible computing, bioelectronics, and spintronics, provide numerous technological opportunities, but also pose interdisciplinary challenges, e.g., to understand the often complex electronic landscape of these systems, to gain insights into relevant structure/processing/property relationships governing charge generation, recombination, transport, both in the bulk and at complex interfaces, and to design and develop new devices and device architectures for rapidly developing fields such as bioelectronics.

This Gordon Research Conference will highlight the state-of-the-art in the growing area of organic and hybrid electronics and optoelectronics in terms of our understanding of fundamental processes of these interesting materials classes. Leading chemists, physicists, and materials scientists will address the key challenges in the field related to charge transport and photophysical processes in organic materials and will discuss how materials design from the molecular to the micrometer scale can provide new and enhanced functionalities, and what fundamental physical processes underpin the operation of organic/hybrid-based devices, including solar cells, light-emitting diodes or transistors. Emerging topics, such as those arising in bioelectronics, and organic/inorganic hybrids, and spintronics fields will also discussed. Key similarities and differences between pi-conjugated organics, hybrid perovskites, and other low-dimensional materials will be explored, promoting cross-fertilization in these active areas.

The 2016 Gordon Research Conference on Electronic Processes in Organic Materials will provide an ideal setting to discuss in depth these and related topics with scientists from academia, government, and industry. Various sessions will be devoted to vigorous discussions about the issues outlined above. A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), held immediately before the conference, will provide an excellent opportunity for young researchers to participate in intellectual growth and career development.