Author archives: DIPC

Mimicking Nature’s light-harvesting efficiency: the case of sulphur-bridged terthiophene dimers

Mimicking Nature’s light-harvesting efficiency: the case of sulphur-bridged terthiophene dimers

ChemistryCondensed matterEnergyMaterials

By DIPC

In nature, light harvesting organisms make extensive use of energy and electron transfer between adjacent molecules. Thus, in the photosynthetic cell of an algae, bacterium, or plant, there are light-sensitive molecules called chromophores, which contain a π-conjugated system (a system with alternate single and double bonds), arranged in an antenna-shaped structure named a photocomplex. When […]

Visualizing charge oscillations on a metal surface

Visualizing charge oscillations on a metal surface

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysicsQuantum physics

By DIPC

With “many-body problem” we usually make reference to one that is very difficult to obtain exact solutions for, because the system involves interactions between more than two bodies. This kind of problem appears both in classical and quantum systems. In order to understand the physics of many-body systems, it is necessary to make use of […]

A method to calculate elastic quantum transport at the nanoscale

A method to calculate elastic quantum transport at the nanoscale

Condensed matterMaterialsQuantum physics

By DIPC

The field of electronic transport through nanometer-scale systems, such as molecular junctions or atomic wires, has been an extremely active area during the last decades. The effect that the development of a post-silicon era might have on our daily lives, together with the existence of a number of extremely interesting scientific and technological open questions […]

Effects of defects and water on perovskite solar cells

Effects of defects and water on perovskite solar cells

ChemistryCondensed matterEnergyMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

The German mineralogist Gustav Rose (1798 – 1873) made important contributions in the fields of petrology and crystallography. He was the first to use a reflective goniometer in Germany and developed a particular interest in the relationship between the crystalline form and the physical properties of minerals. As a consequence, he contributed significantly to the […]

Electronic friction is fundamental to understand surface chemistry dynamics

Electronic friction is fundamental to understand surface chemistry dynamics

ChemistryCondensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

Anyone who has studied, even superficially, some thermodynamics has encountered the word adiabatic very early. This is because adiabatic processes are extremely useful to understand the basics of the field. An adiabatic process is any process that occurs without heat (or matter) entering or leaving a system. In general, an adiabatic change involves a fall […]

How to improve the transport efficiency of excitons by many orders of magnitude

How to improve the transport efficiency of excitons by many orders of magnitude

Condensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By DIPC

Usually, the concept of exciton is linked to that of nonmetallic crystal: an electron-hole pair in a crystal that is bound in a manner analogous to the electron and proton of a hydrogen atom. It behaves like an atomic excitation (hence the name) that passes from atom to another and may be long-lived. Exciton behaviour […]

Porphyrin complexes for high efficiency solar cells

Porphyrin complexes for high efficiency solar cells

ChemistryCondensed matterEnergyMaterials

By DIPC

As the search for renewable energy sources has intensified, the discovery of efficient and cheap technologies for exploiting the energy from the sunlight has emerged as a key challenge. Higher efficiency plays an increasingly important role in making competitive solar cell designs as the price of silicon continues to drop. At present, the actual silicon […]