SCHOFIELD2	Investigating organic molecule dynamics on semiconductor surfaces
Type	Theoretical/analysis/experimental
#students	1
Orientation	Why is the scientific problem of interest at all? . Organic molecules are expected to play an important role in future technologies; from extending the functionality of conventional devices with applications including chemical and biological sensors, photovoltaics and light emitting devices, to novel devices where individual molecules are incorporated as active elements.
How	How is the research going to shed light on the given problem?. The realisation of many such applications will require a detailed understanding of the organicsemiconductor interface. A powerful technique for this purpose is to combine the atomic-resolution imaging capabilities of scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS) with total-energy and kinetic barrier pathway calculations using density function theory (DFT).
What	What is the specific thing that the student will do, and how does it fit inside the overall project? In this project the student will interface between experimental STM/STS measurements being conducted at UCL, and DFT calculations being performed by international collaborators. They will analyse the experimental data using commercial and in-house written software, and attempt to interpret this data with the aid of the results of ongoing DFT calculations. The student will work closely with a PhD student at the LCN who is responsible for the running of the STM and, depending on the scheduling of machine time for experiments, the student may also have the opportunity to be involved the collection of STM data.
Special Knowlegde
Supervisor	Dr Steven Schofield s.schofield@ucl.ac.uk