Multiphonon emission model of spin-dependent exciton formation in organic semiconductors

The maximum efficiency in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) depends on the ratio, $r=k_S/k_T$, where $k_S$ ($k_T$) is the singlet (triplet) exciton formation rate. Several recent experiments found that r increases with increasing oligomer length from a value $r \approx 1$ in monomers and short oligomers. Here, we model exciton formation as a multi-phonon emission process. Our model is based on two assertions: (i) More phonons are emitted in triplet formation than in singlet formation. (ii) The Huang-Rhys parameter for this phonon emission is smaller in long oligomers than in short ones. We justify these assertions based on recent experimental and theoretical data.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Large magnetoresistance at room-temperature in semiconducting polymer sandwich devices

We report on the discovery of a large, room temperature magnetoresistance (MR) effect in polyfluorene sandwich devices in weak magnetic fields. We characterize this effect and discuss its dependence on voltage, temperature, film thickness, electrode materials, and (unintentional) impurity concentration. We usually observed negative MR, but positive MR can also be achieved under high applied electric fields. The MR effect reaches up to 10% at fields of 10mT at room temperature. The effect shows only a weak temperature dependence and is independent of the sign and direction of the magnetic field. We find that the effect is related to the hole current in the devices.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Induced Gauge Theory on a Noncommutative Space

We discuss the calculation of the 1-loop effective action on four dimensional, canonically deformed Euclidean space. The theory under consideration is a scalar $\phi^4$ model with an additional oscillator potential. This model is known to be re normalisable. Furthermore, we couple an exterior gauge field to the scalar field and extract the dynamics for the gauge field from the divergent terms of the 1-loop effective action using a matrix basis. This results in proposing an action for noncommutative gauge theory, which is a candidate for a renormalisable model.Comment: 8 page

Virtual Reality in Higher Education: Preliminary Results from a Design-Science-Research Project

While researchers’ interest in the educational use of virtual reality (VR) has generally increased, only a few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of VR in higher education. This research-in-progress paper presents an overview of an ongoing design-science-research (DSR) project that will (1) develop a conceptual framework for the design and use of VR in higher education, and (2) evaluate the framework by means of a series of field experiments. In addition, the paper presents preliminary results from a literature re-view, so it provides a foundation for framework development. Specifically, we identify several VR design elements (e.g., interaction, feedback, and instruction) and discuss what they can contribute to the acquisition of procedural and declarative knowledge and to the development of skills such as problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. We conclude the paper with an outlook on our research agenda

Good gamers, good managers? A proof-of-concept study with Sid Meier’s Civilization

Human resource professionals increasingly enhance their assessment tools with game elements—a process typically referred to as “gamification”—to make them more interesting and engaging for candidates, and they design and use “serious games” that can support skill assessment and development. However, commercial, off-the-shelf video games are not or are only rarely used to screen or test candidates, even though there is increasing evidence that they are indicative of various skills that are professionally valuable. Using the strategy game Civilization, this proof-of-concept study explores if strategy video games are indicative of managerial skills and, if so, of what managerial skills. Under controlled laboratory conditions, we asked forty business students to play the Civilization game and to participate in a series of assessment exercises. We find that students who had high scores in the game had better skills related to problem-solving and organizing and planning than the students who had low scores. In addition, a preliminary analysis of in-game data, including players’ interactions and chat messages, suggests that strategy games such as Civilization may be used for more precise and holistic “stealth assessments,” including personality assessments

Magnetic fringe-field control of electronic transport in an organic film

Random, spatially uncorrelated nuclear-hyperfine fields in organic materials dramatically affect electronic transport properties such as electrical conductivity, photoconductivity, and electroluminescence. The influence of these nuclear-hyperfine fields can be overwhelmed by a uniform externally applied magnetic field, even at room temperature where the thermodynamic influences of the resulting nuclear and electronic Zeeman splittings are negligible. As a result, even in applied magnetic fields as small as 10 mT, the kinetics of exciton formation, bipolaron formation, and single-carrier hopping are all modified at room temperature, leading to changes in transport properties in excess of 10% in many materials. Here, we demonstrate a new method of controlling the electrical conductivity of an organic film at room temperature, using the spatially varying magnetic fringe fields of a magnetically unsaturated ferromagnet. (The fringe field is the magnetic field emanating from a ferromagnet, associated with magnetic dipole interactions or, equivalently, the divergence of the magnetization within and at the surfaces of the ferromagnet.) The ferromagnet's fringe fields might act as a substitute for either the applied magnetic field or the inhomogeneous hyperfine field. The size of the effect, the magnetic-field dependence, and hysteretic properties rule out a model where the fringe fields from the ferromagnet provide a local magnetic field that changes the electronic transport properties through the hyperfine field, and show that our effects originate from electrical transport through the inhomogeneous fringe fields coming from the ferromagnet. Surprisingly, these inhomogeneous fringe fields vary over length scales roughly 2 orders of magnitude larger than the hopping length in the organic materials, challenging the fundamental models of magnetoresistance in organic layers which require the correlation length of the inhomogeneous field to correspond roughly to the hopping length

A New Approach to Non-Commutative U(N) Gauge Fields

Based on the recently introduced model of arXiv:0912.2634 for non-commutative U(1) gauge fields, a generalized version of that action for U(N) gauge fields is put forward. In this approach to non-commutative gauge field theories, UV/IR mixing effects are circumvented by introducing additional 'soft breaking' terms in the action which implement an IR damping mechanism. The techniques used are similar to those of the well-known Gribov-Zwanziger approach to QCD.Comment: 11 pages; v2 minor correction

Including fringe fields from a nearby ferromagnet in a percolation theory of organic magnetoresistance

Random hyperfine fields are essential to mechanisms of low-field magnetoresistance in organic semiconductors. Recent experiments have shown that another type of random field fringe fields due to a nearby ferromagnet can also dramatically affect the magnetoresistance. A theoretical analysis of the effect of these fringe fields is challenging, as the fringe field magnitudes and their correlation lengths are orders of magnitude larger than that of the hyperfine couplings. We extend a recent theory of organic magnetoresistance to calculate the magnetoresistance with both hyperfine and fringe fields present. This theory describes several key features of the experimental fringe-field magnetoresistance, including the applied fields where the magnetoresistance reaches extrema, the applied field range of large magnetoresistance effects from the fringe fields, and the sign of the effect

Conjugation-Length Dependence of Spin-Dependent Exciton Formation Rates in Pi-Conjugated Oligomers and Polymers

We have measured the ratio, r = $\sigma_S/\sigma_T$ of the formation cross section, $\sigma$ of singlet ($\sigma_S$) and triplet ($\sigma_T$) excitons from oppositely charged polarons in a large variety of $\pi$-conjugated oligomer and polymer films, using the photoinduced absorption and optically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopies. The ratio r is directly related to the singlet exciton yield, which in turn determines the maximum electroluminescence quantum efficiency in organic light emitting diodes (OLED). We discovered that r increases with the conjugation length, CL; in fact a universal dependence exists in which $r^{-1}$ depends linearly on $CL^{-1}$, irrespective of the chain backbone structure. These results indicate that $\pi$-conjugated polymers have a clear advantage over small molecules in OLED applications.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure