Metal-halide perovskite nanocrystals have emerged as the latest generation of semiconductor quantum dots, with their unique chemistry and physics rooted into rather ionic chemical bonding, soft- and dynamic lattices and facile compositional engineering. Lead halide perovskites (APbX3, A=MA, FA, Cs; X=Cl, Br, I) can be synthesized in the form of brightly luminescent nanocrystals with photoluminescence spanning the entire visible spectral range. In the last years their optical and electronic properties have attracted the attention of many researchers from various fields of science.
This symposium brings together experimentalists and theoreticians who are investigating various fundamental processes in perovskite nanomaterials, from the synthesis and surface chemistry to structural and optical characterization, theoretical modelling and device applications. It provides a forum for discussing the latest scientific discoveries in these exciting new research areas bridging material science with optoelectronics and quantum technologies.
- Chemistry –synthesis methods, surface chemistry, self-assembly, new compositions
- Optical spectroscopy – carrier dynamics at ensemble and single dot level, stimulated emission, photon statistics
- Structural Characterization – Advanced X-ray Diffraction and Electron Microscopy
- Theory – band structure calculations, exciton-phonon coupling, fine-structure splitting, surface pasivation
- Devices – LCD, LEDs, microcavity lasers, photodetectors, scintillators, solar concentrators etc.
Maksym Kovalenko has been a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at ETH Zurich since July 2011 and Associate professor from January 2017. His group is also partially hosted by EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) to support his highly interdisciplinary research program. He completed graduate studies at Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria, 2004-2007, with Prof. Wolfgang Heiss), followed by postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago (USA, 2008-2011, with Prof. Dmitri Talapin). His present scientific focus is on the development of new synthesis methods for inorganic nanomaterials, their surface chemistry engineering, and assembly into macroscopically large solids. His ultimate, practical goal is to provide novel inorganic materials for optoelectronics, rechargeable Li-ion batteries, post-Li-battery materials, and catalysis. He is the recipient of an ERC Consolidator Grant 2018, ERC Starting Grant 2012, Ruzicka Preis 2013 and Werner Prize 2016. He is also a Highly Cited Researcher 2018 (by Clarivate Analytics).
Alexander S. Urban studied Physics at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) obtaining an equivalent to an M.Sc. degree (German: Dipl. Phys.) at the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in 2006. During his studies he spent a year at Heriot Watt University (UK), where he obtained an M.Phys. in Optoelectronics and Lasers in 2005. He then joined the Photonics and Optoelectronics Chair of Jochen Feldmann at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich (Germany) in 2007 where he worked on the optothermal manipulation of plasmonic nanoparticles, earning his Ph.D. summa cum laude in 2010. He expanded his expertise in the fields of plasmonics and nanophotonics in the group of Naomi J. Halas at the Laboratory for Nanophotonics at Rice University (Houston, TX, USA), beginning in 2011. He returned to the LMU in 2014 to become a junior group leader with Jochen Feldmann, where he led the research thrusts on optical spectroscopy, focusing on hybrid nanomaterials such as halide perovskite nanocrystals and carbon dots. In 2017 he was awarded a prestigious Starting Grant from the European Research Council and shortly after that in 2018 he received a call as a Full Professor of Physics (W2) at the LMU. Here, he now leads his own research group working on nanospectroscopy in novel hybrid nanomaterials.