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Welcome to the Tenopala Single Molecule Lab

We study the physical and electronic structure of organic semiconductors through their interaction with light. Our specific approach is based on the use of single-molecule microscopy and spectroscopy to go beyond the limitations of ensemble-averaged measurements and elucidate detailed structure-property relations in these materials.

Our current research foci are: 1) to identify and understand the factors that drive molecular alignment in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), such as the chemical structure of molecules and deposition parameters; and 2) to understand how small changes in the conformation of small molecules affect the light-emission process in OLEDs. We approach these foci from the perspective of single-molecule studies, which have already increased our understanding of biology, chemistry, and organic semiconductor physics through the philosophy that molecular processes are best described by distributions than by average values.

As a subgroup of the Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, we enjoy and benefit from strong collaboration with the other subgroups through discussions, technical help, and collaborative projects. Furthermore, we also benefit from ongoing collaborations with world-leading scientists from other institutions in Germany and abroad.

We are currently funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through project 548649522: “Single-molecule studies of OLED emitters: towards a comprehensive understanding of disorder in host-guest organic semiconductor systems”. Our ambition is to develop novel methods that continue to change our understanding of organic semiconductors from a single-molecule perspective.