In the media
- Scientists unlock low-cost material to shape light for industry
- Tunnel vision: Improved optical confinement means a bright future for next-generation lasers
- Solution processed Faraday Rotators
Upcoming and/or current events
- 10th International Conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (AMN10), 4-10 February 2023, Rotorua
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science Summer Workshop, 9-10 January, UNSW
Group activites
2023
Congratulations to Yun Li for completion of your PhD titled Design of laser structures and configurations with solution processed active materials.
Congratulations to Yun Li for recent publication “Distributed feedback lasers up to the 400th Bragg order with an organic active layer” in Applied Physics Letters that was chosen as an Editor’s Pick.
Pratiksha Dad commenced her PhD on 1st Jan 2023 and will be working in the area of chiral nano-optics. Welcome Pratiksha!
2022
Purchased a new PAOIS spectrometer for organic solar cell and light emitting diodes. Thanks to the USyd Faculty of Science CAPEX grant.
Congratulations to Yun Li for recent publication Active waveguide Bragg lasers via conformal contact PDMS stamps in Scientific Reports.
Congratulations to Dr Ashish Sharma for recent publication in Nature Communciations led by Payne group at USyd.
Congratulations to Dr Ashish Sharma and Yun Li for recent publication in J Phys Chem Lett on Probing Through-Bond and Through-Space Interactions in Singlet Fission-Based Pentacene Dimers.
Purchased a new EOS-FIRE nanosecond transient absorbance (TA) spectrometer. Thanks to the ARC LE21 grant.
Congratulations to Alison Goldingay and Patrick Conaghan on their recent publication in Nat Commun led by Mike Price, Paul Hume and Justin Hodgkiss from Victoria University of Wellington.
Welcome to Alex Stuart, who joins the group. Alex did her PhD in Prof Tak Kee’s group, University of Adelaide and brings with her enormous knowledge on transient absorbance spectroscopy.
Congratulations to Alison Goldingay (Campbell) for winning the 2021 Dean’s Award for Citizenship and Outreach.
The whole group attended ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science annual workshop, 3-7 April, Leura. Alison won an award for the best Theme 1 talk.
Congratulations to Julien Leoni for completion of your PhD titled The multifaceted role of Perylene Diimides in Organic Solar Cells.
Welcome to Dr Yahui Tang, who joins the group as a roving postdoc between USyd and CSIRO, Clayton. Yahui did her PhD in Prof Chris McNeill’s group, Monash University and brings with her enormous knowledge on organic solar cells.
Congratulations to Alison Campbell and Dr Patrick Conaghan for recent publication in Nature Communciations led by Hodgkiss group (VUW, NZ).
A/Prof Girish Lakhwani commences his position of Deputy Director (Academic Partnerships) at The Sydney Nano Institute
2021
Welcome to Dr Inseong Cho, who has joined as a postdoc. Inseong did his PhD from Prof Atilla Mozer’s group at University of Wollongong and is an expert on dye sensitised solar cells.
Congratulations to A/Prof Girish Lakhwani for taking over Directorship of Institute for Photonics and Optical Science from Prof Martijn De Sterke.
We bid farewell to Amir Asadpoordarvish and Patrick Conaghan who after spending a couple of years in the MP2 group left for next jobs. Patrick is now a policy advisor for the UK government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Dr Girish Lakhwani gave a contributed talk at Strong Coupling with Organic Molecules (SCOM) zoom conference, 25-28 April, Gothenburg on “Organic Polariton Lasing with Molecularly Isolated Perylene Diimides”
Congratulations to Dr Girish Lakhwani on his promotion to Associate Professor.
2020
Check out Alison Campbell‘s small interview on Dr Shane’s podcast Einstein A Go-Go on Triple R FM – link here
Dr Girish Lakhwani gave a a talk titled “Molecular Photophysics” at University of Sydney-Sorbonne University joint workshop on Optics. The zoom workshop was scheduled 4th Dec. Here is the link to a small interview.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma on his new job as project manager in the Edutech domain of the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE).
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma and Claire Wallace for their recent publication in Cell Reports Physical Science in demonstrating the mechanism behind the formation of chiral perylene fibre networks using a range of complementary chiroptical spectroscopy techniques.
We bid farewell to Randy Sabatini, who after spending about three years in MP2 group is moving on to join postdoctoral position in University of Toronto. He made immense contributions to the group notably towards polariton lasing and Faraday rotation from novel semiconductor materials.
Congratulations to Randy Sabatini for his recent publication in Appl. Phys. Lett. demonstrating optically pumped polariton lasing from perylenes immersed in Polystyrene (PS) matrix. Till date only similar system to demonstrate this has been BODIPY dye immersed in PS matrix.
Congratulations to Dr Randy Sabatini and Matthew Rahme for their recent publication in J Mater Chem C on observation of strong coupling and energy funnelling in an electrically conductive host-guest DT-DPP:F8BT organic blend. We expect that energy funnelling will become an important tool to drive down polariton laser thresholds in organic systems.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma for contribution to Steinmetz at al article on emission state structure and linewidth broadening mechanisms in 2D colloidal heterostructures (research led by Barisien group from Sorbonne University)
Congratulations to Randy Sabatini for contribution to article by Zhang et al in J Mater Chem C on FRET-enhanced photoluminescence of perylene diimides (research led by Wong group, The University of Melbourne).
Congratulations to Caleb Stamper for completing his Honours project successfully.
We hope everyone is well despite challenging times we facing due to constantly evolving COVID-19 situation in Australia and globally. While currently research operations at our university are ongoing as usual (as of 20 March), however, staff and students are working remotely, where possible. As a result, updates on this page will be slower than usual.
Congratulations to Randy Sabatini for first author contribution to Long et al Chiral-perovskite optoelectronics in Nature Reviews Materials
Dr Girish Lakhwani gave an invited talk at ICONSAT Conference in Kolkata 5-7 March, 2020 on “Faraday Rotation in lead halide perovskites”
We bid out first PhD graduate, Dr Ashish Sharma goodbye as he leaves us to join postdoctoral position in GeorgiaTech University. We wish him good luck for his future and thank him for the invaluable contributions he made to the MP2 group over the past 4 years.
Congratulations to Dr Girish Lakhwani, who took over the Deputy Director role and joined the Executive team in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science on 3rd Feb. He will be undertaking portfolio of IP, Commercialisation and Risk Management.
Congratulations to Dr Randy Sabatini and Mr Matthew Rahme for the acceptance of their research article in Advanced Science DOI:10.1002/advs.201902950. Here is the link to the press release. The article was also covered by Cosmos, Phys Org, Laser Focus World magazine (March edition) and Advanced Science News.
Muhammad Afnan Sheikh joined the group for his summer internship project. He will be staying with us till the end of February.
2019
We are pleased to announce the launch of our Device Facility laboratory which hosts glovebox evaporator system, IQE/EQE setups, Solar Simulator and other toys which will help us in making and characterising OPV, OLEDS and transistors in-house.
Entire MP2 research group attended ACEx Workshop at Arts Centre, Melbourne, 9-11 December and participated in numerous talks and poster presentations.
We bid farewell to our node administrator, Mrs Diana Londish and thank her for her service to the USyd node for the last two years. We welcome our new node administrator, Mrs Michelle Sullivan who joined us this December.
Mr Julien Leoni, Mr Yanchen Zhou, Dr Randy Sabatini and Dr Girish Lakhwani attended AUCAOS Symposium in Katoomba, 2-4 Dec. Randy gave a talk on “Perylene Derivatives for Polariton Lasing” while Julien had a poster on “Investigation of new excitonic materials for polariton lasing” and Yanchen also presented a poster titled “Theoretical Study of Bimolecular Recombination in Organic Solar Cells”
Congratulations to Ms Alison Campbell and Mr Matthew Rahme for completing their Honours projects successfully.
Dr Girish Lakhwani joined in the VC led delegation to India 18-22 November. Together with Prof Amartya Mukhopadyay, I organised an “Electrochemical Energy Storage” workshop in IIT Bombay (India) on 18/11. This included 12 delegates (3 from USyd and 9 from IITB). He also gave two Sydney Showcase public talks at Trident, Mumbai (18/11) and Leela Palace, New Delhi (22/11) on “Energy consumption and production in India and Australia” followed by panel discussion.
Congratulations to Alison Campbell won “overall best presentation and abstract” prize at Australian Conference of Undergraduate Research (ACUR).
We welcome, Dr Ivan Kassal (USyd) who joined as an Associate Investigator in ACEx this October.
Congratulations to Mr Ashish Sharma, Ms Alison Campbell and Mr Julien Leoni for the acceptance of their research article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 10, 7547 (2019)
MP2 labs were open to public on 12th September as part of Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS) outreach event.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma for contribution to Panda et al ACS Nano article on fine structure and spin dynamics in 2D colloidal heterostructures.
Dr Ivan Kassal (The University of Sydney) delivered ACEx seminar on 30th August 2019 on partially delocalised exciton and charge transport in semiconductors
Ashish Sharma delivered his postgraduate seminar on “Chiroptical Phenomena in Conjugated Systems” delivered on 26th August.
Dr Girish Lakhwani presented at the The Al – Zr of the Periodic Table event on 14th August, Great Hall, the University of Sydney. He discussed about elements Pb and Cd.
Congratulations to Dr Girish Lakhwani for being awarded with the Vice Chancellor’s award for Outstanding Teaching and Research.
Dr Girish Lakhwani gave departmental seminars at Eindhoven University of Technology (July 4th) and AMOLF (July 5th) in the Netherlands and Bayreuth University (July 19th) on “Exciton dynamics in organic semiconductors at different length scales”
Dr Girish Lakhwani attended 17th International conference of Chiroptical Spectroscopy in Pisa, Italy (June 22-27) and 31st Chirality conference in Bordeaux, France (July 14-17) and presented on self assembly of perylene organogelators.
Mr Ashish Sharma, Dr Randy Sabatini and Dr Girish Lakhwani attended 13th International conference on optical probes of hybrid optoelectronic materials and applications in Vilnius, Lithuania (July 7-12) and presented on Singlet Fission, Faraday rotation and Polaritons, respectively.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma for securing RACI Postgraduate Travel Bursary worth $2000 to attend Optical Probes conference in Vilnius, Lithuania 7-12 July.
Ms Alison Campbell gave a radio interview on Ian Wolff’s podcast program ‘Diffusion Science’ discussing her honours project related to “Quantum Dots”. Link here –http://www.diffusionradio.com/2019/07/quantum_dots.html
MP2 research group is glad to host Dr Pegah Maasoumi (University of Melbourne) for the next two months. She together with Randy, Julien and Yun will embark on a challenging ACEx project. May the force be with them!
MP2 research group hosted Prof Justin Hodgkiss (Victoria University of Wellington) for ACEx seminar on 3rd May 2019
Congratulations to Yun Li for being awarded with RTP scholarship for his PhD studies.
Welcome to Dr Amir Asadpoordarvish who recently joined the mp2 group.
Congratulations to Randy Sabatini for contribution to long et al. Adv. Mater. article on theoretical prediction of 3D chiral hybrid perovskites.
ACEx node group members welcome BBQ party took place on 21st Feb at Bronte Beach, Sydney
Prof Jürgen Köhler from University of Bayreuth gave the 2nd ACEx seminar on Feb 15th in UNSW where he discussed his single molecule spectroscopy work on Chlorosomes
Girish Lakhwani gave a talk on “Edge effects create barrier to delocalisation in conjugated polymer aggregates” and Julien Leoni presented a poster on “Investigation of new excitonic materials for polariton lasing” at RACI Phys Chem meeting, Feb 11-15, Perth
Alison Campbell gave a talk at the RACI Women in Science Chemistry breakfast event at The University of Sydney, Feb 12
Congratulations to Randy Sabatini and Julien Leoni for the acceptance of their research article in The Journal of Materials Chemistry C – DOI: 10.1039/C9TC00093C
Congratulations to Alison Campbell for winning the University of Sydney Honours Scholarship and Rowe Scholarship.
A warm welcome to Alison Campbell and Matthew Rahme who recently joined the MP2 group for their Honours year.
Girish Lakhwani gave an invited talk on “Perylenes for polariton lasing” at 3rd FOSL (Frontiers of organic semiconductor lasers) conference, Jan 24-25, Brisbane
Julien Leoni and Yanchen Zhou attended the ACEx Exciton Solar + Design summer school, UNSW, Jan 14-19
2018
MP2 research group end of year party took place on Dec 7 where the group tested their skills in Jenga followed by drinks and dinner at a local restaurant.
Girish Lakhwani gave a talk on “Edge Effects Create Barrier to Delocalisation in Conjugated Polymer Aggregates” at AUCAOS meeting in Hahndorf, SA, Dec 2-5
Girish Lakhwani gave a talk on “Exciton Science” at RACI Science in a Pub at 3 Wise Monkeys, Sydney, Nov 14
Yun Li gave his honours seminar on “Probing photophysics of singlet fission materials“, USyd, Nov 13
Girish Lakhwani was part of a team led by Dr Ivan Kassal that secured The University of Sydney Nano Institute Grand Challenge funding of A$250k on “Next-Generation Materials Discovery”
Dr Wallace Wong and his student Bolong Zhang from the University of Melbourne visited MP2 research group on Friday, 12th October.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma for being the runner-up in the Merck 2018 Travel Grant Award competition – he received a travel grant contribution to attend AUCAOS meeting in December in Adelaide.
Availer are visiting the group on 3rd October and will be talking to researchers about their research and prospects of commercialising it.
A warm welcome to Yanchen Zhou who has returned to MP2 group to pursue his MPhil. He will be studying magenta-optical effects in conjugated systems.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma and Randy Sabatini for the acceptance of their research article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C – DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b07482
The entire MP2 group travelled to Melbourne for the 2nd ACEx workshop, 24-26 September. Congratulations to Julien Leoni and Randy Sabatini for winning the poster prizes in the PhD and postdoc category. Apart from research talks and posters, the group members also engaged in professional development, entrepreneurial and communication workshops.
Dr Sarah Masters from the University of Canterbury visited the School of Chemistry on 14th September, where she gave a School seminar and later visited MP2 research labs and interacted with the group members.
MP2 labs were open to public on 6th September as part of Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS) outreach event.
Keita Richardson (USyd) joined the group for his TSP project. He will be staying with us till the end of October.
Eleanor Forbes (Southampton University) joined the group for her placement project. She will be staying with us till the end of December.
Congratulations to Julien Leoni for winning the University of Sydney Nano Institute Postgraduate Top-Up Scholarship.
Congratulations to the Girish Lakhwani for securing Faculty of Science Capital Expenditure funding for the creation of Solar Cell Facility.
ACEx Sydney Science Meeting is scheduled for 18th and 19th June at The University of Sydney.
Together with Dr Ivan Kassal, Domain leader of Quantum Systems in Sydney Nano, Girish Lakhwani co-organised a joint workshop between Sydney Nano Institute and Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay on 30 Apr and 1st May. The workshop follows the USyd-IITB memorandum of understanding that develops university-wide frameworks to support collaborative research, teaching and training. More details about the workshop can be found via Girish’s radio interview with the SBS – link here.
Congratulations to Yun Li for winning the University of Sydney Honours Scholarship worth $6000.
Prof Dieter Neher from University of Potsdam visited the School of Chemistry and ACEx labs on 12th and 13th March.
A/Prof Trevor Smith and his research group from The University of Melbourne visited our labs on 7th March to kickstart some ACEx collaborative activities.
Prof Jürgen Köhler from University of Bayreuth visited the group from 19th to 21st February. He gave a school seminar and interacted with group members during his stay.
Dr Pegah Maasoumi from The University of Melbourne visited our group from 5 – 9th February to kick start some collaborative projects.
Ashish Sharma attended the ICONN conference in Wollongong from 29 Jan – 2nd Feb where he gave two talks – at the Centre of Excellence Showcase and the main conference.
Evan Hockings, Lauren Mcrae (USyd) and Maura Appleberry (Boston University) joined the group for their summer internship projects. They will be staying with us till the end of February.
2017
Ashish Sharma spent Nov-Dec in the Dr Akshay Rao’s group in the University of Cambridge to perform ultrafast experiments.
Girish Lakhwani gave three conference talks in December at the AUCAOS (Peppers resort, Kingscliff, 4-6 Dec), ACEx annual workshop (Peppers resort Moonah, 10-13 Dec) and EAWCD (Kyoto, Japan, 18-21 Dec)
The University of Sydney node of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science (ACEx) was officially launched on the 23 November 2017. Girish Lakhwani gave a talk sharing the vision of ACEx and in particular, the important role that the School of Chemistry will play in delivering solutions to challenging problems in energy generation, lighting and security. Read more here
Congratulations to Claire Wallace to be awarded the University Medal for her B.Sc (Honours). Graduation ceremony on 22nd September.
Congratulations to Ashish Sharma to be awarded the poster prize by the Physical Chemistry Division at the RACI Centenary Congress in Melbourne, July 2017.
Girish Lakhwani gave a an invited talk at the Physical Chemistry Divisional Conference at the RACI Centenary Congress in Melbourne, July 2017
Girish Lakhwani gave a conference talk at Optical Probes, Québec city, Canada, 19-23 June, 2017
Molecular Photophysics (MP2) research group 