[BLOG] IT'S ALIVE! (or: what the hell does Dan do anyway?)

MyrmidonMyrmidon Baron von PuttenhamCalifornia Icrontian
edited November -1 in Community
So today, after nigh on ten months of bashing my head against the wall, one of my transistors gave results.

Wait, what?

I'm a grad student (actually a concurrent student, but it's easier to just say "grad student") in organic electronics. My thesis is going to be in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs), which is the little stepbrother that OLEDs and OPVs make fun of when he's not around. I've been working since sometime in July on getting this stuff to work with no results and a lot of frustration.

I was beginning to suspect the whole phenomenon of organic transistors was a nobel-prize milking conspiracy - fake experiments with little 'by the way, this experiment is REALLY hard, so don't try it at home' caveats. I'd been reading papers and trying various things to get a process hashed out - ten months for a PROCESS to make my test vehicle, actual research be damned! - to no avail. Of course, I'm a stone-cold BAD researcher: I'm clumsy and careless in the lab and I forget stuff I've read out of papers immediately. NOT the kind of guy you want in a lab.

So naturally I was ECSTATIC when my device responded with current-voltage curves. Maybe this stuff is real after all!

Unfortunately, the test destroyed the device. So I have no evidence other than the data, which I could have easily faked. I'd probably better start adding a few 'this is too hard to try at home' statements to my thesis...

//edit: pictures are up. See part 2.

Comments

  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    Pix.
  • ZuntarZuntar North Carolina Icrontian
    definitely pix.
  • Trippe Pix.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    So, what you're saying then is we shouldn't expect any Nobel Prize winning sharing from you anytime soon, well, not until you can rebuild the "device" and replicate the results?

    On a more serious note, congratulations!
  • MyrmidonMyrmidon Baron von Puttenham California Icrontian
    Pictures are, in fact, inbound... whenever I get to my USB cable (sometime after FAC, so stay up late).

    Also, if I ever win a Nobel prize, remind me to pack Satan a thermos of spiced cider or coffee - cause his job will have gotten a helluva lot colder. :)
  • Where are you studying organic electronics at? I have been looking for grad schools that offer programs in it, and the best I have found is 'get a biochem PhD and find an advisor that specializes in it.'
  • MyrmidonMyrmidon Baron von Puttenham California Icrontian
    Oh, you got me started. :)

    Biochem is NOT the way to go for organic electronics. The word "organic" is misleading - it has nothing to do with living tissue, i.e. nothing biological - it refers instead to the chemistry of the semiconducting layer. I have a biochem minor out of sheer interest, so I know from experience - it's about as far as you can get from electronics and still stay in science. You'd be better off in a chemistry program or something if you want to stay near the chemistry side.

    You won't find a 'program' in organic electronics, either - it's more a specialized field of research, like MEMS, solar cells, or high temp superconductors. You're in luck, though - at high-science tiers, almost all majors run together - electrical engineering overlaps with materials engineering in electronics, which overlaps with physics, which overlaps with chemistry... so don't worry about what 'program' you're in. What's most important is (and it sounds like the advice you've gotten) finding a professor with an interest in organic electronics. They're the ones that set your research project, no matter what field you're in. Hell, I'm in materials science and I'm working with chemists and electrical engineers.

    I am currently at Iowa State University. However, the research in organic electronics here is SUPER small - our group is the only dedicated organic electronics group on campus, but we work in tandem with groups that have interest in the research. If I were you, I'd chase down Alan Heeger at the U of california, or Zhenan Bao at stanford. These are the big guys, though. If they aren't accepting grad students, your next best bet is to find a university you like, go to the physics, chemistry, materials science, and electrical engineering websites - then start looking through the bio of each professor until you find one with an interest in OPVs or OTFTs or something.

    Give me a holler if you want to chat about it. :)
  • Sure will. I'll drop you a message in a couple days. Got a ton of school stuff to prep for a couple days.
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