Nov 23 2009
Professor Franco Cacialli of the University College London has become a fellow of the American Physical Society upon the recommendation of the Division of Materials Physics.
Professor Franco Cacialli
His work has contributed to organic semiconductors and related applications, and to the fabrication of conjugated polymers nanostructures via scanning near-field optical lithography (Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 526,2003), and more recently scanning thermal lithography (Nature Nanotechnology 4, 664, 2009). Professor Franco Cacialli also proposed a new method to investigate probe-induced sample heating in apertured near-field experiments (Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 11102 (2005)), exploiting organic semiconductors thermochromism. His work on polymer LEDs ranged from the first demonstration of extended device lifetimes (~1000 hours, Synth. Met. 67, 157, 1994), to a comprehensive study of charge injection issues, and optimisation of injection barriers (e.g. J. Appl. Phys. 84, 6859, 1998; Appl. Phys. Lett. 79, 174, 2001), including the direct measurement of the work function increase upon incorporation of PEDOT:PSS hole-injection layers in finished devices (Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 1679, 1999).
Professor Franco Cacialli has also developed a keen interest for supramolecularly engineered materials in general, and threaded molecular wires (TMWs) in particular, thanks to collaboration with the group of HL Anderson at Oxford. In 2002 they have reported the first optical and electroluminescence characterisation of such wires, and since then demonstrated the dramatic effects that threading of conjugated polymers into insulating cyclodextrin rings (to form conjugated polyrotaxanes) has on the control of intermolecular excitations (F. Cacialli et al. Nature materials, 1, 160, 2002).