Professor
Degrees and Appointments
- Dipl. Chem. ETH 1997, ETH
- D. Phil. Oxon 2001, Oxford
- Postdoctoral Fellow 2001-2004, JILA (National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Boulder)
- Professor of Physics 2015 -
Field of Study: Physical Chemistry
Awards and Honors
- Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 2001-2003
- Greendale Senior Scholar, Merton College, Oxford, 1998-2001
- 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Awardee, 2005-2007
- College of Science Distinguished Early Career Teaching Award, 2014
- Homer C. and Emily Davis Weed Endowed Chair in Chemistry, 2020
Research Specialties: Energy Science, Quantum Materials, 2D Materials, Organic Semiconductors, Ultrafast Spectroscopy, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, Surface Science, Single Molecule Transport, Machine Learning
Research in LabMontiTM is focused on designing and understanding 2D materials, quantum materials, organic semiconductors and their combinations to enable radically new approaches to high efficiency electronics and quantum information science. We use organic semiconductors, conjugated molecules with widely tunable electronic properties, to impart new functionality to 2D materials such as graphene, MoS2, CrI3 etc. These are atomically thin extended crystals that exhibit profoundly new properties. We use this approach also to manipulate the properties of quantum materials such as magnetism, superconductivity and other collective phenomena. We also make electronic devices at the absolute size limit of a single molecule. All these efforts are working towards fundamentally changing how much energy is needed for computing and data storage, an urgent need to mitigate global climate change. Our research is enabled by unique capabilities only available in our lab.
Research in LabMontiTM seeks to elucidate the chemistry and physics of charges in in these materials on the short length - and time-scales present in electronic and spintronic devices. We probe these materials with advanced steady-state and ultrafast photoelectron spectroscopies in our lab and at synchrotrons, and study self-assembly using scanned probe microscopy under highly controlled conditions. We have some of the world's most unique capabilities to investigate electronic structure on very small length-scales down to the single molecule limit, and can combine this with very high time-resolution to develop mechanistic insight into energy and charge-flow across interfaces. Our work seeks to transform how energy is used in electronics and data processing to radically lower the associated carbon footprint
Correlated Energy-Level Alignment Effects Determine Substituent-Tuned Single-Molecule Conductance, J.A. Ivie, N.D. Bamberger, K.N. Parida, , S. Shepard, D. Dyer, A. Saraiva-Souza, R. Himmelhuber, D.V. McGrath, M. Smeu, and O.L.A. Monti, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 13, 4267–4277 (2021)
Unsupervised Segmentation-Based Machine Learning as an Advanced Analysis Tool for Single Molecule Break Junction Data. N.D. Bamberger, J.A. Ivie, K.N. Parida, D.V. McGrath, and O.L.A. Monti, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 124, 18302–18315 (2020)
The role of initial and final states in molecular spectroscopies, T. Kirchhuebel, O.L.A. Monti, T. Munakata, S. Kera, R. Forker, and T. Fritz, PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS, 21(24): 12730–12747 (2019)
Anisotropic Attosecond Charge Carrier Dynamics and Layer Decoupling in Quasi-2D Layered SnS2, C.N. Eads, D. Bandak, D. Nordlund, M.R. Neupane and O.L.A. Monti, Nature Comm., 8, 1369 (2017)
Controlling the spin-texture of topological insulators by rational design of organic molecules, S. Jakobs, A. Narayan, B. Stadtmueller, A. Droghetti, I. Rungger, Y.S. Hor, S. Klyatskaya, D. Jungkenn, J. Stoeckl, M. Laux, O.L.A. Monti, M. Aeschlimann, R.J. Cava, M. Ruben, S. Mathias, S. Sanvito, M. Cinchetti, Nano Lett., 15, 6022-6029 (2015)
Disrupted Attosecond Charge Carrier Delocalization at a Hybrid Organic/Inorganic Semiconductor Interface, D.A. Racke, L.L. Kelly, H. Kim, P. Schulz, A. Sigdel, J.J. Berry, S. Graham, D. Nordlund, and O.L.A. Monti, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 1935-1941 (2015)
The Importance of Gap States for Energy Level Alignment at Hybrid Interfaces, D.A. Racke, L.L. Kelly and O.L.A. Monti, J. Elec. Spect. Rel. Phen., 204A, 132-139 (2015)
Integer Charge Transfer and Hybridization at an Organic Semiconductor / Conductive Oxide Interface, M. Gruenewald, L.K. Schirra, P. Winget, M. Kozlik, P.F. Ndione, A.K. Sigdel, J.J. Berry, R. Forker, J.-L. Bredas, T. Fritz, and O.L.A. Monti, J. Phys. Chem. C 119, 4865-4873 (2015)
Interplay of Local and Global Interfacial Electronic Structure of a Strongly Coupled Dipolar Organic Semiconductor, N. Ilyas and O.L.A. Monti, Phys. Rev. B, 90, 125435 (2014)
Tailoring Electron-Transfer Barriers at Zinc Oxide / C60 Fullerene Interfaces, P. Schulz, L.L. Kelly, P.D. Winget, H. Li, H. Kim, P.F. Ndione, A.K. Sigdel, J.J. Berry, S. Graham, J.-L. Bredas, A. Kahn and O.L.A. Monti, Adv. Func. Mater., 24, 7381-7389 (2014)
Defect-Driven Interfacial Electronic Structure at an Organic / Inorganic Semiconductor Heterojunction, P.D. Winget, L.K. Schirra, D. Cornil, H. Li, V. Coropceanu, P.F. Ndione, A.K. Sigdel, D.S. Ginley, J.J. Berry, J. Shim, H. Kim, B. Kippelen, J.-L. Bredas and O.L.A. Monti, Adv. Materials 26, 4711-4716 (2014)
Spin-dependent trapping of electrons at spinterfaces, S. Steil, N. Grossmann, M. Laux, A. Ruffing, D. Steil, M. Wiesenmayer, S. Mathias, O.L.A. Monti, M. Cinchetti, M. Aeschlimann, Nature Physics 9, 242-247 (2013)
2D materials; quantum materials; transition metal dichalcogenides; organic semiconductors; interfaces; ultrafast spectroscopy