Category: News & Events

UQ will be hosting the Australia–New Zealand Ultrafast Spectroscopy Meeting in Brisbane, Queensland, on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th February 2026.

This meeting is a chance for the ultrafast laser spectroscopy community across Australia and New Zealand to come together, catch up, and share what we’ve all been working on. We’re keen to showcase the breadth of ultrafast spectroscopy research in the region, along with the facilities and capabilities that are already available—or currently under development.

The program will include a keynote presentation, as well as invited and contributed talks from researchers representing the major ultrafast laser spectroscopy labs in Australia and New Zealand.

The meeting will be held in Room 316, Advanced Engineering Building (Building 49) at the St Lucia campus of the University of Queensland.

There’s no cost to attend, but registration is required. Abstract submissions are now open, and if you submit an abstract, you’re automatically registered—because avoiding duplication is even faster than being ultrafast.

We’re really looking forward to welcoming you to Brisbane!

The seventh annual AUCAOS symposium was held at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, from Wednesday 26th to Friday 28th November 2025.

There were 36 excellent talks from our Keynote Speakers (Professors Martin Heeney and Jenny Clark), Invited Speakers (Dr Jessie Posar, Dr Petri Murto, Dr Bin Guan, Dr Anirudh Sharma, and Dr Qian Liu), Group leaders, early career researchers (ECRs), PhD, Honours, and Master’s students.

The prestigious best presentation awards were presented to Dr. Jess de la Perrelle (ECR, University of South Australia) and Dexter Gordon (PhD Student, University of New South Wales).

 

Additionally, 23 high-quality poster presentations were given, with awards going to Jade Wilson (1st – James Cook University), Rhys Tunnadine (2nd – University of South Australia), and Mackenzie Burstow (3rd – University of Queensland).

 

AUCAOS extends its sincere thanks to the symposium sponsors: the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, Nano Vacuum Pty Ltd, SCIPRIOS GmbH, Magnitude Instruments, NewSpec Pty Ltd, QUT Centre for Materials Science, Energy & Environmental Science RSC, 1 Material Inc, Scitek Australia Pty, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility – Queensland Node.

The next Australasian Community for Advanced Organic Semiconductors Symposium is to take place in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia from Wednesday 26th to Friday 28th November 2025. It will bring together the organic semiconductor research community of Australia and New Zealand, and will be an exciting forum for discussing the latest developments in computation / theory, the chemistry of new materials including, processing, film morphology, and spectroscopy, as well as device physics, and device fabrication / manufacturing / testing.

For further details please visit the AUCAOS 2025 website.

Professor Paul Burn is stepping down as Chair of AUCAOS. The AUCAOS Committee would like to express their sincere gratitude to Paul for his leadership in establishing AUCAOS and for his dedicated service as Chair over the last eight years, which included organising the highly successful annual symposium of the community. We are pleased to announce that Professor Chris McNeil and Associate Professor Paul Shaw have agreed to take on the role of Co-Chairs of AUCAOS.

The sixth annual AUCAOS symposium was held at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, from Wednesday 27th to Friday 29th December 2024.

There were 29 excellent talks from our Keynote Speakers (Professor Furong Zhu and Doctor Martin Peeks), Group leaders, early career researchers (ECRs), PhD, Honours, and Master’s students.

The prestigious best presentation awards were presented to Dr. Alexandra Stuart (ECR, University of Sydney) and Nikita Shumilov (PhD Student, Victoria University of Wellington).

Additionally, 21 high-quality poster presentations were given, with awards going to Eucalyptus Brooks (1st – The University of Queensland), Matthew Brett (2nd – UNSW), and Thomas Flanagan (3rd – Queensland University of Technology).

 

 

 

 

 

AUCAOS extends its sincere thanks to the symposium sponsors: the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, Nano Vacuum Pty Ltd, Scitek Australia Pty, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility – Queensland Node.

The following papers have been selected for inclusion in the Showcasing Physical Chemistry research in Australia and New Zealand themed collection. AUCAOS member authors are in bold.

Luminescence-based detection and identification of illicit drugs
M. Chen, P. L. Burn and P. E. Shaw

Understanding specific ion effects and the Hofmeister series
Kasimir P. Gregory, Gareth R. Elliott, Hayden Robertson, Anand Kumar, Erica J. Wanless, Grant B. Webber, Vincent S. J. Craig, Gunther G. Andersson and Alister J. Page

A straightforward method to quantify the electron-delocalizing ability of π-conjugated molecules
David Bradley, Callum P. Branley and Martin D. Peeks

The impact of film deposition and annealing on the nanostructure and dielectric constant of organic semiconductor thin films
Lachlan Packman, Neil Mallo, Aaron Raynor, Mile Gao, Mohammad Babazadeh, Hui Jin, David M. Huang, Paul L. Burn, Ian R. Gentle and Paul E. Shaw

The interaction of size-selected Ru3 clusters with TiO2: depth-profiling of encapsulated clusters
Liam Howard-Fabretto, Timothy J. Gorey, Guangjing Li, D. J. Osborn, Siriluck Tesana, Gregory F. Metha, Scott L. Anderson and Gunther G. Andersson

Time-resolved keto–enol tautomerization of the medicinal pigment curcumin
Mandy H. M. Leung, Matthew A. Addicoat, Stephen F. Lincoln, Gregory F. Metha and Tak W. Kee

Au9 nanocluster adsorption and agglomeration control through sulfur modification of mesoporous TiO2
Anahita Motamedisade, Martin R. Johnston, Amjad E.H. Alotaibi and Gunther A. Andersson

Underscreening in concentrated electrolytes: re-entrant swelling in polyelectrolyte brushes
Hayden Robertson, Gareth R. Elliott, Andrew R. J. Nelson, Anton P. Le Brun, Grant B. Webber, Stuart W. Prescott, Vincent S. J. Craig, Erica J. Wanless and Joshua D. Willott

Intramolecular hole-transfer in protonated anthracene
Benjamin A. Laws, Olha Krechkivska, Klaas Nauta, Scott H. Kable and Timothy W. Schmidt

Tuneable emission in single molecule dyads mediated by a charge transfer state
Matthew W. Brett, Michael B. Price, Calum K. Gordon, Karen E. Thorn, Lara D. Browne, Paul A. Hume, Justin M. Hodgkiss, Bridget L. Stocker, Mattie S. M. Timmer and Nathaniel J. L. K. Davis

Singlet fission preserves polarisation correlation of excitons
Jessica M. de la Perrelle, Patrick C. Tapping, Elisabeth Schrefl, Alexandra N. Stuart, David M. Huang and Tak W. Kee

Experimental and computational characterisation of an artificial light harvesting complex
Sabrina L. Slimani, Roman Kostecki, Ahmed Nuri Kursunlu, Tak W. Kee, Patrick C. Tapping, Adrian M. Mak and James Q. Quach

Congratulations to the following AUCAOS Group members who have been awarded a DECRA (Discovery Early Career Researcher Award) from the Australian Research Council:

Investigator(s)

Summary

Dr Mile Gao

Light can strongly couple with organic semiconductor molecules and materials to form polaritons at room temperature that can immensely modify excited energy states and exhibit nonlinear optical properties. This project aims to leverage the strong interparticle interactions between polaritons, which are significantly higher than weakly interacting photons used in conventional photonics, to deliver a new capability for multidimensional optical computing. This project has a distinctive approach to harnessing photon degrees of freedom via strong light-matter coupling enabling novel avenues for enhancing the capacity of optical computing, benefiting various applications that require pattern recognition, such as artificial intelligence.

Congratulations to the following AUCAOS members who have been awarded Future Fellowships funding by the Australian Research Council:

Investigator(s)	Summary
Associate Professor Girish Lakhwani	Light can strongly couple with organic semiconductor molecules and materials to form polaritons at room temperature that can immensely modify excited energy states and exhibit nonlinear optical properties. This project aims to leverage the strong interparticle interactions between polaritons, which are significantly higher than weakly interacting photons used in conventional photonics, to deliver a new capability for multidimensional optical computing. This project has a distinctive approach to harnessing photon degrees of freedom via strong light-matter coupling enabling novel avenues for enhancing the capacity of optical computing, benefiting various applications that require pattern recognition, such as artificial intelligence.
Dr Nadim Darwish	The project aims to develop electrochemical methods and surface-science strategies to prevent the spread of enveloped viruses. A multidisciplinary approach involving surface electrochemistry, single-protein electrochemical measurements, and electro-active nanomaterials will be used. The expected outcomes are electrochemical devices to gain new fundamental knowledge of the electrochemistry involved in viral infectivity mechanisms and the development of new virucidal materials. The materials will be the active elements of new generation of anti-transmission products such as facemasks, wipe cloths, surface coatings and air filters.

The fifth Annual AUCAOS symposium was held at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, from Wednesday 29th November to Friday 1st December 2023.

There were 41 excellent talks from our Keynote Speakers (Professors Helen Huang and Rona Chandrawati), Group leaders, early career researchers (ECRs), PhD, Honours, and Master’s students.

The best presentation awards were presented to Dr Caroline Pan (ECR – Flinders University) and Euca Brooks (Hons – University of Queensland). There were also 22 high quality poster presentations with the three awards given to Osheen Joseph (1st – The University of Queensland), Chesta (2nd – Melbourne University), and Arti (3rd – Macquarie University).

 

AUCAOS would also like to thank the symposium sponsors (Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, Nano Vacuum Pty Ltd, AINSE Ltd, Scitek Australia Pty and The Australian National Fabrication Facility – Queensland Node).

AUCAOS members Prof Tim Schmidt (UNSW) and A/Prof Girish Lakhwani (The University of Sydney) are co-chairing the 2024 Australia-NZ Ultrafast Spectroscopy Meeting.

When: Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:00 AM – Fri, 16 Feb 2024 5:00 PM (Australian Eastern Daylight Time)

Location: Law Building Annex Seminar Room 105, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.

Abstracts: Send to jeremy.platt@sydney.edu.au and cc girish.lakhwani@sydney.edu.au by the 31st of January.

To register (free) and for more details, visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2024-australia-nz-ultrafast-spectroscopy-meeting-tickets-763151345217?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Congratulations to Keith Gordon (PI) and James Crowley (AI) on being awarded $941,000 by the Marsden Fund for their three-year project “Hydrogen generation with sustainable resources – a combined molecular, computational and engineering approach“. Also involved in the project are researchers from Friedrich Schiller University, Jena (Dr S Kupfer, Dr GE Shillito and Prof. W Weigand), Ulm University (Prof. D Ziegenbalg) and the University of Nottingham (Prof. MW George).

Abstract: Hydrogen is an important fuel source and commodity chemical used in a wide range of industrial processes. Unfortunately, almost all the hydrogen produced currently is obtained from the steam reforming process which is both energy intensive and generates carbon dioxide as a by-product. There are already several photocatalytic systems, including bimetallic metal complexes that can efficiently generate hydrogen in this way. However, the current technologies use Noble metals which are expensive and rare. They will use earth abundant transition metals such as iron, cobalt and copper by re-designing the photocatalytic systems.

The grant will fund three PhD stipends and related research costs.

Congratulations to AUCAOS member Associate Professor Matthew Griffith  who has been awarded the 2023 David Sangster Polymer Science and Technology Achievement Award from the The Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

COPE research has been included as part of the celebrations for the Journal of Materials Chemistry C’s 10th Anniversary in 2023, in which they celebrate some of their most dedicated authors that have published in the journal over the last 10 years. COPE’s paper entitled “Dicyanovinyl-based fluorescent sensors for dual mechanism amine sensing” by Guanran Zhang, Alex S. Loch, Jos C. M. Kistemaker, Paul L. Burn and Paul E. Shaw reports two dual mechanism fluorescent sensors that enable selective sensing of alkyl primary amines with a low detection limit (J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020,8, 13723-13732).

Congratulations to the following AUCAOS members who have been awarded Future Fellowships funding by the Australian Research Council:

Investigator(s)	Summary
Dr Matthew Griffith	Organic Bionics: Soft Materials to Solve Hard Problems in Neuroengineering. This project aims to combine innovations in organic conductors, nanotechnology, 3D biofabrication and neuroengineering to develop a bioelectronic system capable of wireless neuromodulation with unprecedented stability and precision. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the properties of materials that promote optical neuromodulation and new strategies to obtain long-term material stability in biological environments. The expected outcome is to generate new material design rules to facilitate wireless neuromodulation technologies in biomedical engineering. The project will position Australia as a leader in bionic devices by creating a new 3D bioprinting hub for low-cost fabrication of bioelectronic systems.
Associate Professor Ivan Kassal	Simulating chemical reactions on quantum computers. This project aims to enable a new capability for simulating practically relevant chemical dynamics and reactivity in regimes where conventional computational chemistry fails. It expects to do so by generating an extensive toolbox of quantum algorithms that would allow quantum computers to carry out otherwise intractable simulations of a wide range of chemical processes using existing quantum devices. As quantum technology matures, these algorithms should enable quantum computers to accelerate computational screening of new chemical processes in a wide range of fields, enabling faster discovery of, for example, improved catalysts, batteries, medicines, fuels, and solar cells.
Dr Murad Tayebjee	Characterising and Manipulating Triplet Interactions. Organic optoelectronic devices are based on organic semiconductors and are found throughout modern life. They underpin technologies such as phone and television displays, low-energy lighting, and solar cells. The project Aims to use spectroscopy to comprehensively understand the underlying physics of organic optoelectronic device materials. This is Significant enabling science that will accelerate development of light-emitting diodes, solar cells, and new quantum information technologies. Expected outcomes include new knowledge about organic semiconductors, enhanced Australian research capacity, and international collaboration. Benefits include device innovations and the training of researchers in synthesis, fabrication, and spectroscopy.

Congratulations to the following AUCAOS members who have been awarded Discovery Project funding by the Australian Research Council: Professor Gunther Andersson, Dr Matthew Griffith, Professor Steven Langford, Professor Christopher McNeill, Professor Prashant Sonar, Dr Lars Thomsen.

Please see below for further details (AUCAOS members in bold):

Investigator(s)	Summary
Professor Christopher McNeill; Dr Lars Thomsen; Dr Mikhail Zhernenkov; Dr David Prendergast	Resonant tender X-ray scattering of organic semiconductors. This project aims to establish resonant tender X-ray scattering as a mature technique for unravelling the complex microstructure of organic semiconductor layers. By understanding and exploiting the resonant interaction between organic semiconductors and X-rays tuned to appropriate absorption edges, new information about the molecular packing of these materials will be obtained. The expected outcomes are new experimental methodologies and analysis tools for determining the complex structure of technologically relevant materials. Benefits include understanding of the properties of solution-processed semiconductors enabling the design of high performance materials with applications in energy, electronics, lighting and health.
Professor Guoxiu Wang; Associate Professor Hao Liu; Professor Steven Langford	Quest for Sustainable Electrochemical Energy Storage System. This project aims to develop high performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries for grid-scale renewable energy storage. Rechargeable zinc-ion battery is a promising electrochemical energy storage technology owing to its high safety, low-cost and environmental friendliness. By developing high capacity cathode materials, dendrite-free zinc metal anodes and advanced electrolytes, this project expects to achieve practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries with high energy density, long cycle life and cost-effectiveness. The deployment of zinc-ion batteries will enable integration of renewable energies and stabilisation of electricity networks. The project will directly support Australia’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Professor Prashant Sonar; Associate Professor Dongchen Qi; Professor Steven Bottle; Associate Professor Emanuele Orgiu	Innovative Stable Free Radical-Substituted Conjugated Electronic Polymers. The project aims to develop an innovative class of stable free radicals side-chain substituted conjugated donor-acceptor electronic polymers with unique polaronic and radical charge transport capabilities. The targeted optoelectronic material class is unique and has not been explored in depth before. The combination of unpaired electrons and delocalized backbone -electrons delivers exciting modes of charge transfer that provide these novel materials with clear potential as electroactive materials with applications in various nanoelectronics devices. Developing a fundamental understanding of charge transport properties and potential device applications will open up a new field of research in advanced optoelectronic technology.
Professor Vincent Craig; Professor Erica Wanless; Professor Gunther Andersson; Professor Alister Page; Professor Grant Webber	Deciphering ion specificity in complex electrolytes. This project aims to understand how ions influence the behaviour and properties of complex electrolytes (solutions containing either multiple ions, solvent mixtures, high electrolyte concentrations or a variety of interfaces, solutes or polymers). Complex electrolytes are ubiquitous in colloidal and particle technologies and underpin industrial and natural processes. Our team will combine experiment, simulation and theory to deliver a universal framework for understanding and predicting specific ion effects in complex electrolytes. The project outcomes are expected to deliver new understanding for researchers, robust rules of thumb for technologists and a public resource for data-driven solutions in applications utilising salt solutions.
Dr Matthew Griffith; Professor Paul Dastoor; Dr Natalie Holmes; Professor Alan Brichta; Associate Professor Rebecca Lim	Organic Bioelectronics: Solving Key Barriers to Precision Neuromodulation. This project aims to combine the principles of molecular electronics and neurobiology to create organic conductors with enhanced biocompatibility that enable optical neuromodulation. This project expects to generate new knowledge regarding the properties of materials that promote connectivity with neurons and the ability of new microscopy tools to visualise this bio-interface. The expected outcome of this project includes new high performing materials, measurement tools and fabrication approaches to overcome the key challenges to precision neuromodulation. A significant benefit of the new materials is their printability, providing the opportunity to establish a sovereign capability to manufacture low-cost bioelectronic systems in Australia.

The next Australasian Community for Advanced Organic Semiconductors Symposium is to take place in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia from Wednesday 29th November to Friday 1st December 2023. It will bring together the organic semiconductor research community of Australia and New Zealand, and will be an exciting forum for discussing the latest developments in computation / theory, the chemistry of new materials including, processing, film morphology, and spectroscopy, as well as device physics, and device fabrication / manufacturing / testing.

For further details please visit the AUCAOS 2023 website.

Dr Nathaniel Davis’ Research Group have made the news recently when the team flew to Rotorua in North Island, New Zealand, to teach primary school students to create solar cells using berries.

Check the link for further information: https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/06/27/rotorua-students-turn-berries-into-solar-cells-in-experiment/

The fourth Annual AUCAOS symposium was held at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, from Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th December 2022. There were 40 wonderful talks from our Keynote Speakers (Professors Christine Luscombe and Natalie Stingelin), Group leaders, early career researchers (ECRs) and PhD students. The best presentation awards were presented to Dr Jessie Posar (ECR – University of Sydney) and William Pappas (PhD – University of New South Wales). There were also 25 high quality poster presentations with the three awards given to Audrey Sanzogni (1^st – The University of Queensland), Calvin Lee (2^nd – Melbourne University), and Gagandeep Ahluwalia (3^rd – The University of Melbourne). A highlight of the meeting was the level of discussion during the talks and around the poster evening. AUCAOS especially thanks the symposium sponsors (Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, Scitek Australia Pty, The Australian National Fabrication Facility – Queensland Node and Nano Vacuum Pty Ltd) without whom the meeting could not have been held.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next Australasian Community for Advanced Organic Semiconductors (AUCAOS) Symposium is to take place in Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia from Wednesday 7th to Friday 9th December 2022. It will bring together the organic semiconductor research community of Australia and New Zealand, and will be an exciting forum for discussing the latest developments in computation / theory, the chemistry of new materials including, processing, film morphology, and spectroscopy, as well as device physics, and device fabrication / manufacturing / testing.

For further details please visit the AUCAOS 2022 website.

 

Time:

1pm in QLD

2pm in NSW, ACT, Vic, and Tas

11am in WA

12:30pm in NT

1:30pm in SA

4pm in New Zealand

Meeting URL: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/81155055049

Seminar schedule

Each talk is 20 minutes duration followed by approximately 5 minutes for questions and discussion.

Time (QLD time, adjust as needed)

Presentation
1:00 – 1:25pm

Materials Intermixing and the Dipole Formation at the active Layer/Conjugated Polymer P(NDI3N-T-Br) Interface

Amira R Alghamdi

Flinders University

Interfacial engineering using interface layers has been identified as an essential approach for maximizing power conversion efficiency (PCE) of polymer solar cells (PSCs) by optimizing the charge transport between the active layer and the charge extracting electrodes through aligning the energy levels between the layers in a device. The properties of an interface layer have to allow for the transport of one of the charge carriers and at the same time block the other. As an example, the interface layer helping to extract the electrons from the active layer should block the transport of the holes to the same interface layer. P(NDI3N-T-Br) polymer was used as a cathode interface layer in inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) fabricated using poly[2,3-bis(3- octyloxyphenyl)quinoxaline-5,8-diyl-alt-thiophene-2,5-diyl] (TQ1) and poly[[N,N’-bis(2-octyldodecyl)-naphthalene-1,4,5,8-bis(dicarboximide)-2,6-diyl]-alt-5,5′-(2,2′-bithiophene)] (N2200) as the donor and acceptor materials, respectively. The aim of the work is to determine the position of the energy levels of P(NDI3N-T-Br) to those of the materials forming the active layer, resulting in a physical and electronic model of the interface region. We show that these quantities can be derived from the electron spectroscopy data when a full component analysis of the valence electron spectra is conducted. The valence electron spectroscopy technique shows that a dipole formed at the interface between TQ1, and P(NDI3N-T-Br) blocks the transfer of holes from the active layer to the P(NDI3N-T-Br). However, the transfer of electrons from N2200 is facilitated.

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Presentation
1:25 – 1:50pm

Investigating the long-term stability of organic light emitting diodes by Rutherford backscattering technique

Tengfei Qiu

The University of Queensland

Phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (P-OLEDs) are a promising display technology due to the high colour purity and quantum efficiency. The long-term stability is one of the major issues for these devices. In a typical P-OLED structure, the emissive layer containing phosphorescent molecules is sandwiched by several electron transport layers and hole transport layers. Physical changes in the film structure caused by interlayer material diffusions dramatically changed the photoelectric properties. Obvious changes in material density and thickness under rapid annealing conditions to temperatures higher than the glass transition temperatures of the materials can be detected by neutron reflectometry (NR). Corresponding changes in emitting properties can be reflected in the photoluminescent (PL) spectra. However, performance degradations happen in the course of normal operational conditions for display applications, where temperatures higher than room temperature and lower than 60 ° C are more likely to be encountered. Under such mild conditions, the minor changes in material density and thickness are difficult to detect. There is a lack of methods to detect such diffusion and further to clarify the causes of the changes in the PL spectra. Here, we use the Rutherford backscattering technique, which is able to detect the distribution of heavy metal element of phosphorescent molecules in the organic matrix to study the role of the diffusion of the phosphorescent molecules on the long-term stability of OLED devices. The work provides a new approach for investigating the performance degradation mechanism of OLEDs

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During the seminar:

• Please keep your microphone muted unless you are speaking. This is to reduce the background noise and avoid disrupting the presenter.

• You will be automatically muted when you join the virtual meeting room. To speak, you will need to unmute yourself by using the audio controls in the lower left of the Zoom window.

• If you have not used Zoom before, then it is recommended that you join 5 minutes before the starting time to ensure that you have your software set up correctly.

Please be aware that the talks will be recorded and posted on the AUCAOS website.

Previous seminars:

Previous seminars can be viewed here: https://seminars.aucaos.org.au/

Call for abstracts:

Seminars are typically held on the first Wednesday of each month.

At this time we are specifically encouraging HDR students to present their work to broad audience. If you are interested in speaking then please submit an abstract to bronson.philippa@jcu.edu.au.

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