Rafi Chesler, University of Arizona
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Abstract: One avenue toward helping solve today’s energy crisis is developing more efficient solar cells, which we may achieve, in part, by investigating and utilizing the phenomenon of singlet fission. This is a process occurring in certain molecules in which a photoexcited singlet exciton eventually forms two triplet excitons. Doubling the number of excitons may lead to more efficient conversion of light into energy by mitigating losses due to thermalization. Understanding these processes represents a complex problem for which we must consider many-body effects. I will briefly introduce the theoretical framework used to describe these effects and the computational methods that are necessary to predict measurable properties of relevant systems. This information will both improve our understanding of ultrafast photophysical processes in molecules as well as guide approaches toward device fabrication for future generations of solar cells.