• B.Sc., 1997, University of Durham (UK)
• Ph.D., 2001, University of Durham (UK)

Research Interests:

John Lupton joined the faculty in July 2006 after postdoctoral engagements in St. Andrews, Mainz and Munich. He works in the field of optical spectroscopy of semiconductors and is particularly interested in the photophysics of molecular and colloidal nanostructures. Using the approach of single molecule spectroscopy, the solid of a semiconductor in an optoelectronic device can be dissected into its individual molecular constituents. Of these organic optoelectronic materials, conjugated polymers constitute a particularly promising but also scientifically challenging class of materials due to the high level of structural disorder attainable on the molecular level. The single molecule approach, which complements current efforts by materials chemists and engineers to improve materials and device design for organic electronics, reveals deep insight into intrinsic correlations between chemical structure and physical properties. It also opens up the possibility of constructing truly molecular optoelectronic devices operating on the nanoscale.

Selected Recent Publications

• Laser Technology: Over the Rainbow,
  Nature 453, 459 (2008)
• Simultaneous Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy of single conjugated polymer chains (with M. J. Walter, K. Becker, J. Feldmann, G. Gaefken, and S. Höger),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 137401 (2007)
• Room-temperature exciton storage in elongated semiconductor nanocrystals (with R. M. Kraus, P. G. Lagoudakis, A. L. Rogach, D. V. Talapin, H. Weller, and J. Feldmann),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 017401 (2007)
• Electrical control of Förster energy transfer (with K. Becker, J. Müller, D. V. Talapin, A. L. Rogach, H. Weller and J. Feldmann),
  Nature Mat. 5, 777 (2006)
• How single conjugated polymer molecules respond to electric fields (with F. Schindler, J. Müller, U. Scherf and J. Feldmann),
  Nature Mat. 5, 141 (2006)
• Efficient Light Harvesting in Dye-endcapped Conjugated Polymers Probed by Single Molecule Spectroscopy (with K. Becker),
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 6468 (2006)
• Spin-conserving carrier recombination in conjugated polymers (with M. Reufer, M. J. Walter, P. G. Lagoudakis, A. B. Hummel, J. S. Kolb, H. G. Roskos, and U. Scherf),
  Nature Mat. 4, 340 (2005)
• Counting chromophores in conjugated polymers (with F. Schindler, J. Jacob, A. C. Grimsdale, K. Müllen, U. Scherf, and J. Feldmann),
  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44, 1520 (2005)
• Dual species emission from single polyfluorene molecules: signatures of stress-induced planarization of single polymer chains (with K. Becker),
  J. Am. Chem. Soc. (Comm.) 127, 7306 (2005)
• A universal picture of chromophores in pi-conjugated polymers derived from single molecule spectroscopy (with F. Schindler, J. Feldmann, and U. Scherf),
  PNAS 101, 14695 (2004)
• Monitoring surface charge movement in single elongated semiconductor nanocrystals (with J. Müller, A. L. Rogach, J. Feldmann, D. V. Talapin, and H. Weller),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 167402 (2004)
• Experimental evidence for exciton scaling effects in self-assembled molecular wires (with P. G. Lagoudakis , M. M. de Souza, F. Schindler, J. Feldmann, J. Wenus, and D. G. Lidzey),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 257401 (2004)
• Linewidth-limited energy transfer in single conjugated polymer molecules (with J. G. Müller, U. Lemmer, G. Raschke, M. Anni, U. Scherf, and J. Feldmann),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 267403 (2003)
• A molecular thermometer based on long-lived emission from platinum octaethyl porphyrin,
  Appl. Phys. Lett. 81, 2478 (2002)
• Intrinsic Room-Temperature Electrophosphorescence from a Pi-Conjugated Polymer (with A. Pogantsch, T. Piok, E. J. W. List, S. Patil, and U. Scherf),
  Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 167401 (2002)