Deirdre O'Carroll

Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director

Materials Science and Engineering

Phone:848-445-1496
Fax:732-445-3258
Email:ocarroll@rutgers.edu
Office:CCR-218
Office Hours: By appointment
Website: Photonics.rutgers.edu

Link to Dr. O’Carroll’s Google Scholar Page

 

Research Area/Interests:
The O’Carroll Research Group is focused on nanoscale engineering of the efficiency and direction of light generating and light harvesting processes in photonic devices which employ organic polymeric semiconductor materials and plasmonic nanostructures. For light generating devices, plasmonic nanoantennas are investigated as a means to enhance the efficiency, rate and directionality of low luminescence quantum efficiency, high-mobility conjugated polymer materials such as the widely studied poly(3-hexylthiophene). This is an original approach to solving one of the main challenges associated with using organic materials in opto-electronic devices – i.e., high charge carrier mobility organic materials predominantly exhibit low luminescence quantum efficiency due to intermolecular interactions. For light harvesting devices such as bulk-heterojunction photovoltaics, nanostructured optically-active noble metal electrodes are designed and implemented to induce a number of beneficial photonic effects to the device behaviour that have the potential to push the technology closer to competitive solar power conversion efficiencies.

Teaching

Professor O'Carroll's teaching responsibilities during the 2021-2022 academic year are:

Fall 2021:

  • Advanced Optical Materials (Graduate), 16:635:505                         

Spring 2022:      

 

Education

Ph.D., Microelectrical Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland, 2008
B.E., (First Class Honors), Electrical Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland, 2002. 
 
Training
Postdoctoral fellow: Nanostructures Laboratory, University of Strasbourg and CNRS, 2010
Postdoctoral scholar: Applied Physics and Materials Science, California Institute of Technology, 2007-2009
 

Honors

  1. 2017 ACS Polymer Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) Young Investigator
  2. 2016 NSF CAREER Award
  3. 2013 Selected as Rutgers’ nominee for the Packard Foundation Fellowship
  4. 2012 Rutgers’ Research Council Award
  5. 2008-2010 EC Marie Curie International Fellowship
  6. 2008 1 st place, Tyndall Best Paper Competition.
  7. 2007 1 st place, Inaugural Tyndall Postgraduate Poster Competition.
  8. 2002-2005 IRCSET NSOM Postgraduate Research Scholarship

Professional Affiliations

  • Materials Research Society
  • SPIE
  • American Chemical Society
  • IEEE

Selected Publications

  • C. M. Carter, J. Cho, A. Glanzer, N. Kamcev, D. M. O’Carroll, “Cost, Energy and Emissions Assessment of Organic Polymer Light-Emitting Device Architectures.” Journal of Cleaner Production 137, 1418-1431 (2016).
  • G. Z. Cheung, B. Yu, M. Liu, Z. Gong, J. Kohl, C. E. Petoukhoff, P. Piotrowiak, D. M. O’Carroll, “Effects of Conjugated Polymer Incorporation on the Morphology and Energy Harvesting of Solution-Processed Phthalocyanine-Based Thin-Films.” Synthetic Metals 220, 469-476 (2016).
  • C. E. Petoukhoff, C. Antonick, B. M. Krishna M., K. M. Dani, D. M. O'Carroll, “Oxidation of Planar and Plasmonic Ag Surfaces by Exposure to O2/Ar Plasma for Organic Optoelectronic Applications.” MRS Advances 1, 943-948 (2016).
  • B. Agyei-Tuffour, E. R. Rwenyagila, J. Asare, O. K. Oyewole, M. G. Zebaze Kana, D. M. O’Carroll, W. O. Soboyejo, “Influence of Pressure on Contacts between Layers in Organic Photovoltaic Cells.” Advanced Materials Research 1132, 204-216 (2016).
  • Z. H. Kafafi, A. F. Nogueira, R. J. Martín-Palma, D. M. O’Carroll, J. J. Pietron, I. D.W. Samuel, F. So, N. Tansu, L. Tsakalakos, “The Role of Photonics in Energy.” Journal of Photonics for Energy 5, 050997-1-44 (2015), review paper.
  • C. E. Petoukhoff, D. M. O'Carroll, “Absorption-Induced Scattering and Surface Plasmon Out-Coupling from Absorber-Coated Plasmonic Metasurfaces.” Nature Communications 6, 7899-1-13 (2015).
  • B. Yu, J. Woo, M. Kong, D. M. O'Carroll, “Mode-Specific Study of Nanoparticle-Mediated Optical Interactions in an Absorber/Metal Thin Film System.” Nanoscale 7, 13196-13206 (2015), back cover highlight.
  • Z. Shen, D. M. O'Carroll, “Nanoporous Silver Thin Films: Multifunctional Platforms for Influencing Chain Morphology and Optical Properties of Conjugated Polymers.” Advanced Functional Materials 25, 3302-3313 (2015), inside cover.
  • A. Wade, P. Lovera, D. O'Carroll, H. Doyle, G. Redmond, “Luminescent Optical Detection of Volatile Electron Deficient Compounds by Conjugated Polymer Nanofibers.” Analytical Chemistry 87, 4421-4428 (2015).
  • C. E. Petoukhoff, Z. Shen, M. Jain, A. Chang, D. M. O'Carroll, “Plasmonic Electrodes for Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Photovoltaics: A Review.” Journal of Photonics for Energy 5, 057002-1-28 (2015).
Patents
Issued patent: “Organic optoelectronic devices incorporating plasmonic electrodes.” D. M. O’Carroll, C. E. Petoukhoff, D. K. Vijapurapu, United States Patent No.: US 9,263,689 B2, Date of Patent: Feb. 16, 2016.