Charge and Heat Transport Theory - Solomon Group

Understanding chemical trends in charge and heat transport through molecules

Traditionally, chemistry has involved the study of molecules in solution, the gas phase or as solid crystals. Today, nanofabrication techniques have made it possible to bind molecules in a huge array of different environments and we need to understand how different chemical functionalities influence properties like electrical and thermal conductivity.

We are particularly interested in quantum interference effects and how simple changes in conjugation can result in dramatically different transport properties. We collaborate closely with experiment and have recently commenced work on machine learning and advanced statistical approaches to analysing experimental data. In 2020, we received funding from the Carlsberg Foundation for a mechanically controlled break junction instrument to establish a new experimental sub-group.

In all cases, our particular focus is on the chemistry of the system and the molecules involved. We want to develop an intuitive understanding of how we can use molecular functionalities to design systems with properties of interest.

Major Projects

You can read more about our projects on their project pages.

We currently have 3 projects running in the group:

ERC Consolidator Grant Project: QLIMIT

FTP Project: Designing Molecular Dielectric Materials

NNF Challenge Center: SolidQ (project page coming soon)

We have previously had two major projects running in the group:

ERC Starting Grant Project: CHEMHEAT

Sapere Aude Project: Simulating Single Molecule Pulling Experiments

Click and read a full list of our publications.