Dr. Charusheela Ramanan

Charusheela Ramanan received her B.Sc. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. She then completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry at Northwestern University (2011) under the joint supervision of Prof. Michael Wasielewski and Prof. Tobin Marks. Her thesis focused on the development and photophysical characterization of novel material systems for organic photovoltaic devices. She then carried out postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Rienk van Grondelle at Vrije Universiteit/Laserlab Amsterdam, where she used time-resolved spectroscopy to study the biophysics of photosynthetic energy conversion. Following this, she worked in the group of Prof. Elizabeth von Hauff (Amsterdam) as a senior postdoctoral researcher in photoconversion materials. In March 2017, she joined the division of Molecular Electronics at MPI-P as a group leader. Since September 2020, she is an Assistant Professor in the Physics of Energy Division at the Vrije Universiteit/LaserLaB Amsterdam.

Research Interests

We characterize light-matter interactions in materials for optoelectronic devices and solar fuels. These include molecular and polymer systems for organic electronics as well as biohybrid and biomimetic systems for novel emerging technologies. Light-driven processes in (bio-)molecular semiconductor systems occur across a broad range of timescales. We use time-resolved absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopes to explore electronic photoexcited processes such as charge separation, singlet fission, and energy transfer. Our setups allow us to characterize photophysical mechanisms from the femtosecond to the millisecond timescale, and from the visible to the near infrared spectral region. Our goal is to understand how intermolecular coupling interactions in these disordered systems drive device function.

Publications

Rörich, I.; Schönbein, A.-K.; Mangalore, D. K.; Halda Ribeiro, A.; Kasparek, C.; Bauer, C.; Craciun, I.; Blom, P.; Ramanan, C.: Temperature dependence of the photo- and electroluminescence of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) based polymers. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 6 (39), pp. 10569 - 10579 (2018)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

publisher-version

Huang, W.; Byun, J.; Rörich, I.; Ramanan, C.; Blom, P. W. M.; Lu, H.; Wang, D.; Caire da Silva, L.; Li, R.; Wang, L. et al.; Landfester, K.; Zhang, K. A. I.: Asymmetric Covalent Triazine Framework for Enhanced Visible-Light Photoredox Catalysis via Energy Transfer Cascade. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 57 (27), pp. 8316 - 8320 (2018)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

Ramanan, C.; Ferretti, M.; van Roon, H.; Novoderezhkin, V. I.; van Grondelle, R.: Evidence for coherent mixing of excited and charge-transfer states in the major plant light-harvesting antenna, LHCII. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 19 (34), pp. 22877 - 22886 (2017)

MPG.PuRe

DOI

Ramanan, C; Kim, C. H.; Marks, T. J.; Wasielewski M. R.

Excitation Energy Transfer within Covalent Tetrahedral Perylenediimide Tetramers and Their Intermolecular Aggregates

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp500475c

Ramanan, C.; Smeigh, A. L.; Anthony, J. E.; Marks, T. J.; Wasielewski M. R.

Competition between Singlet Fission and Charge Separation in Solution-Processed Blend Films of 6,13-Bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene with Sterically-Encumbered Perylene-3,4:9,10-bis(dicarboximide)s

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja2080482