BRIGHTS future for quantum objects

Professor Sir Richard Friend is one of the leading researchers to win a European Research Council’s (ERC) award in its latest round of Advanced Grant competition. The funding, worth €2.5 million per grant, gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs.

The Advanced Grant competition, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, is one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes in the EU.

Friend, a Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory, leads a team of researchers exploring the electronic properties of novel semiconductors, including carbon-based organic semiconductors and metal halide perovskites.

The new ERC-backed project is titled BRIGHTS, short for “Bright High Spin Molecular Semiconductors,” and builds on Friend’s breakthrough in creating materials that shine brightly even in higher electronic spin states. These materials have the potential to transform fields like quantum science and optical technologies by combining luminescent properties with quantum spin behaviour.

“This new avenue of research comes out of our long-standing work on LEDs and an unexpected finding,” said Friend. “Some of our molecules that have overall electron spin can be extraordinarily bright and luminescent. While most molecules do not achieve this level of luminescence, we now understand the underlying mechanisms that enable this phenomenon. This knowledge allows us to design molecular systems where we can carefully control the nature of the interactions between spins.”

These breakthroughs enable the creation of complex spin states within molecules that retain luminescent properties, transforming them into spin-optical quantum objects. At the heart of the BRIGHTS project is the development of new materials that can both emit light effectively and support high-energy spin states.

These materials will be tested for a wide range of new uses, such as advanced sensors that use light to detect magnetic fields or biological signals; electronics where the way charges move through the material is controlled by their spin states; and solar cells that use special spin states to improve their ability to capture and convert sunlight.

“The versatility of molecules is profoundly powerful”, said Friend. “We can manipulate their structures to transform exceptional light emitters into quantum objects when their spins can be controlled and measured using photons. Unlike inorganic materials, every atom in our molecular systems is intentionally placed to achieve specific outcomes.”

“This capability suddenly propels us into the realm of quantum science, with potential for applications in sensing, information storage, and optical technologies. This European funding provides the means to pursue these ambitions.”

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe.

“These ERC grants are our commitment to making Europe the world’s hub for excellent research,” said Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research, and Innovation. “By supporting projects that have the potential to redefine whole fields, we are not just investing in science but in the future prosperity and resilience of our continent. In the next competition rounds, scientists moving to Europe will receive even greater support in setting up their labs and research teams here. This is part of our “Choose Europe for Science” initiative, designed to attract and retain the world’s top scientists.”

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One of these materials glowing red with excitation from a blue laser from the right-hand side of the image.