Prof. Timothy Schmidt | ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science

Prof. Timothy Schmidt

Chief Investigator

Molecular Photonics Laboratory

Schmidt is a molecular spectroscopist who has specialised in the development of world leading upconverter systems for energy harvesting. This is a core platform for the Centre. He also coordinates with other Platform Leaders.

Qualifications: 
PhD in Chemistry, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, 2001
BSc (Hons), The University of Sydney, 1998
Centre Research Themes: 
1. Excitonic Systems for Solar Energy Conversion
2. Control of Excitons

Publications

Book Chapters
Frazer, L.; Schmidt, T. W. Optically Coupled Upconversion Solar Cells. In Emerging Strategies to Reduce Transmission and Thermalization Losses in Solar Cells: Redefining the Limits of Solar Power Conversion Efficiency; Lissau, J. Sandby, Madsen, M., Eds.; Emerging Strategies to Reduce Transmission and Thermalization Losses in Solar Cells: Redefining the Limits of Solar Power Conversion Efficiency; Springer, Cham: Switzerland, 2021; pp 197 - 207. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-70358-5
Journal Articles
Yang, C.; Atwater, H. A.; Baldo, M. A.; Baran, D.; Barile, C. J.; Barr, M. C.; Bates, M.; Bawendi, M. G.; Bergren, M. R.; Borhan, B.; et al. Consensus statement: Standardized reporting of power-producing luminescent solar concentrator performance. Joule 2022, 6 (1), 8 - 15 DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2021.12.004. doi: 10.1016/j.joule.2021.12.004
Dvořák, M.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Dover, C. B.; Forest, C. R.; Kaleem, A.; MacQueen, R. W.; Petty, A. J.; Forecast, R.; Beves, J. E.; Anthony, J. E.; et al. Singlet Fission in Concentrated TIPS-Pentacene Solutions: The Role of Excimers and Aggregates. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021, 143 (34), 13749 - 13758 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c05767. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c05767
Nienhaus, L.; Schmidt, T. W. Comment on “Tremendously enhanced photocurrent enabled by triplet–triplet annihilation up-conversion for high-performance perovskite solar cells". Energy & Environmental Science 2021, 14 (11), 6050 - 6052 DOI: 10.1039/D1EE01446C. doi: 10.1039/D1EE01446C
Schmidt, T. W. The Spectroscopy of C 2: A Cosmic Beacon. Accounts of Chemical Research 2021, 54 (3), 481 - 489 DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.0c00703. doi: 10.1021/acs.accounts.0c00703
Gallaher, J. K.; Wright, K. M.; Frazer, L.; MacQueen, R. W.; Crossley, M. J.; Castellano, F. N.; Schmidt, T. W. High efficiency deep red to yellow photochemical upconversion under solar irradiance. Energy & Environmental Science 2021, 14 (10), 5541 - 5551 DOI: 10.1039/D1EE02197D. doi: 10.1039/D1EE02197D
Gholizadeh, E. M.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Gillan, L. V.; Nielsen, M. P.; Ekins-Daukes, N. J.; McCamey, D. R.; Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; Schmidt, T. W. Singlet and Triplet Exciton Dynamics of Violanthrone. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2021, 125 (41), 22464 - 22471 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c06848. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c06848
Li, Y.; Sabatini, R. P.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Hockings, E. T.; Schmidt, T. W.; Lakhwani, G. Improved optical confinement in ambipolar field-effect transistors toward electrical injection organic lasers. Applied Physics Letters 2021, 119 (16), 163303 DOI: 10.1063/5.0063336. doi: 10.1063/5.0063336
Jiang, Y.; Nielsen, M. P.; Baldacchino, A. J.; Green, M. A.; McCamey, D. R.; Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; Schmidt, T. W.; Ekins‐Daukes, N. J. Singlet fission and tandem solar cells reduce thermal degradation and enhance lifespan. Progress in Photovoltaics 2021, 29 (8), 899 - 906 DOI: 10.1002/pip.3405. doi: 10.1002/pip.3405
Hamzawy, S.; Wagner, P.; Gallaher, J. K.; Schmidt, T. W.; Mozer, A. J.; Nattestad, A. Optical analysis of an integrated solar cell and a photon up converter, providing guidance for future device engineering efforts. Journal of Applied Physics 2021, 130 (19), 194501 DOI: 10.1063/5.0072034. doi: 10.1063/5.0072034
MacDonald, T. S. C.; Schmidt, T. W.; Beves, J. E. An All-Photonic Molecular Amplifier and Binary Flip-flop. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2021, 12 (4), 1236 - 1243 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03497. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03497
Beery, D.; Schmidt, T. W.; Hanson, K. Harnessing Sunlight via Molecular Photon Upconversion. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2021, 13 (28), 32601 - 32605 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c08159. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c08159
Wimberger, L.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Peeks, M. D.; Andréasson, J.; Schmidt, T. W.; Beves, J. E. Large, Tunable, and Reversible pH Changes by Merocyanine Photoacids. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021, 143 (49), 20758–20768 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c08810. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c08810
Zhou, Y.; Castellano, F. N.; Schmidt, T. W.; Hanson, K. On the Quantum Yield of Photon Upconversion via Triplet–Triplet Annihilation. ACS Energy Letters 2020, 5 (7), 2322 - 2326 DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01150. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01150
Liu, Y.; Kilby, P.; Frankcombe, T. J.; Schmidt, T. W. The electronic structure of benzene from a tiling of the correlated 126-dimensional wavefunction. Nature Communications 2020, 11, 1210 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15039-9. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15039-9
Wang, D.; Malmberg, R.; Pernik, I.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Roemer, M.; Venkatesan, K.; Schmidt, T. W.; Keaveney, S. T.; Messerle, B. A. Development of tethered dual catalysts: synergy between photo- and transition metal catalysts for enhanced catalysis. Chemical Science 2020, 11 (24), 6256 - 6267 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC02703K. doi: 10.1039/D0SC02703K
Günay, B.; Burton, M. G.; Afşar, M.; Schmidt, T. W. A method for mapping the aliphatic hydrocarbon content of interstellar dust towards the Galactic CentreABSTRACT. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2020, 493 (1), 1109 - 1119 DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa288. doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa288
Liu, Y.; Frankcombe, T. J.; Schmidt, T. W. Visualizing the 30-Dimensional Antisymmetrized Electronic Structure of Water: The Emergence of Lone Pairs. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2020, 11 (3), 735 - 739 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03528. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03528
Sabatini, R. P.; Maasoumi, F.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Zhang, B.; Clark, C.; Schmidt, T. W.; Wong, W.; Lakhwani, G. Organic polariton lasing with molecularly isolated perylene diimides. Applied Physics Letters 2020, 117 (4), 041103 DOI: 10.1063/5.0012461. doi: 10.1063/5.0012461
Liu, Y.; Frankcombe, T. J.; Schmidt, T. W. Electronic Wavefunction Tiles. Australian Journal of Chemistry 2020, 73 (8), 757-766 DOI: 10.1071/CH19517. doi: 10.1071/CH19517
Gholizadeh, E. M.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Teh, Z. Li; Ishwara, T.; Norman, S.; Petty, A. J.; Cole, J. H.; Cheong, S.; Tilley, R. D.; Anthony, J. E.; et al. Photochemical upconversion of near-infrared light from below the silicon bandgap. Nature Photonics 2020, 14 (9), 585 DOI: 10.1038/s41566-020-0664-3. doi: 10.1038/s41566-020-0664-3
Stanley, J. N. G.; García-García, I.; Perfrement, T.; Lovell, E. C.; Schmidt, T. W.; Scott, J.; Amal, R. Plasmonic effects on CO2 reduction over bimetallic Ni-Au catalysts. Chemical Engineering Science 2019, 194, 94-104 DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.003. doi: 10.1016/j.ces.2018.04.003
Schmidt, T. W. A Marcus-Hush perspective on adiabatic singlet fission. Journal of Chemical Physics 2019, 151 (5), 054305 DOI: 10.1063/1.5108669. doi: 10.1063/1.5108669
Price, M. B.; Paton, A.; Gorman, J.; Wagner, I.; Laufersky, G.; Chen, K.; Friend, R. H.; Schmidt, T. W.; Hodgkiss, J. M.; Davis, N. J. L. K. Inter-ligand energy transfer in dye chromophores attached to high bandgap SiO2 nanoparticles. Chemical Communications 2019, 55 (60), 8804-4407 DOI: 10.1039/C9CC03412A. doi: 10.1039/C9CC03412A
Wen, S.; Zhou, J.; P. Schuck, J.; Suh, Y. Doug; Schmidt, T. W.; Jin, D. Future and challenges for hybrid upconversion nanosystems. Nature Photonics 2019, 13 (12), 828 - 838 DOI: 10.1038/s41566-019-0528-x. doi: 10.1038/s41566-019-0528-x
Liu, Y.; Kilby, P.; Frankcombe, T. J.; Schmidt, T. W. Electronic transitions of molecules: vibrating Lewis structures. Chemical Science 2019, 10 (28), 6809-6814 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC02534K. doi: 10.1039/C9SC02534K
Krechkivska, O.; Wilcox, C. M.; Nauta, K.; Kable, S. H.; Schmidt, T. W. Quantum-Induced Symmetry Breaking in the Deuterated Dihydroanthracenyl Radical. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2019, 123 (31), 6711 - 6719 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.9b04561. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.9b04561
Lyskov, I.; Trushin, E.; Baragiola, B. Q.; Schmidt, T. W.; Cole, J. H.; Russo, S. P. First-Principles Calculation of Triplet Exciton Diffusion in Crystalline Poly(p-phenylene vinylene). The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2019, 123 (44), 26831 - 26841 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b08203. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b08203
Gao, C.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Zhang, B.; Dvořák, M.; Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; McCamey, D. R.; Schmidt, T. W.; Smith, T. A.; Wong, W. Intramolecular Versus Intermolecular Triplet Fusion in Multichromophoric Photochemical Upconversion. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2019, 123 (33), 20181 - 20187 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b07098. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b07098
Gorman, J.; Pandya, R.; Allardice, J. R.; Price, M. B.; Schmidt, T. W.; Friend, R. H.; Rao, A.; Davis, N. J. L. K. Excimer Formation in Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Perylene Diimides Attached to Silicon Dioxide Nanoparticles. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2019, 123 (6), 3433 - 3440 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b12061. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b12061
Jefferies, D.; Schmidt, T. W.; Frazer, L. Photochemical Upconversion Theory: Importance of Triplet Energy Levels and Triplet Quenching. Physical Review Applied 2019, 12 (2) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.12.024023. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevApplied.12.024023
Pun, J. Ka Hei; Gallaher, J. K.; Frazer, L.; Prasad, S. K. K.; Dover, C. B.; MacQueen, R. W.; Schmidt, T. W. TIPS-anthracene: a singlet fission or triplet fusion material?. Journal of Photonics for Energy 2018, 8 (2), 022006 DOI: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022006. doi: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022006
Liu, Y.; Kilby, P.; Frankcombe, T. J.; Schmidt, T. W. Calculating curly arrows from ab initio wavefunctions. Nature Communications 2018, 9, 1436 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03860-2. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03860-2
Reilly, N. J.; da Silva, G.; Wilcox, C. M.; Ge, Z.; Kokkin, D. L.; Troy, T. P.; Nauta, K.; Kable, S. H.; McCarthy, M. C.; Schmidt, T. W. Interconversion of Methyltropyl and Xylyl Radicals: A Pathway Unavailable to the Benzyl–Tropyl Rearrangement. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2018, 122 (5), 1261 - 1269 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.7b11914. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.7b11914
von Reventlow, L. Graf; Bremer, M.; Ebenhoch, B.; Gerken, M.; Schmidt, T. W.; Colsmann, A. An add-on organic green-to-blue photon-upconversion layer for organic light emitting diodes. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 2018, 6 (15), 3845 - 3848 DOI: 10.1039/C7TC05649D. doi: 10.1039/C7TC05649D
Perrier, S.; D'Agosto, F.; Zhang, J.; Hill, N. S.; Lalevée, J.; Fouassier, J. - P.; Zhao, J.; Graff, B.; Schmidt, T. W.; Kable, S. H.; et al. Multihydroxy-Anthraquinone Derivatives as Free Radical and Cationic Photoinitiators of Various Photopolymerizations under Green LED. Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2018, 39 (19), 1800172 DOI: 10.1002/marc.201800172. doi: 10.1002/marc.201800172
Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; Rao, A.; Schmidt, T. W. All-optical augmentation of solar cells using a combination of up- and downconversion. Journal of Photonics for Energy 2018, 8 (2), 022007 DOI: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022007. doi: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022007
Yasarapudi, V. B.; Frazer, L.; Webb, J. E. A.; Gallaher, J. K.; Macmillan, A.; Falber, A.; Thordarson, P.; Schmidt, T. W. Competing Energy Transfer Pathways in a Five-Chromophore Perylene Array. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2018, 122 (25), 13937 - 13943 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01084. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b01084
Schmidt, T. W.; MacQueen, R. W.; Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; Castellano, F. N. Spectral Management for Renewable Energy Conversion. Journal of Photonics for Energy 2018, 8 (2), 022001 DOI: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022001. doi: 10.1117/1.JPE.8.022001
Günay, B.; Schmidt, T. W.; Burton, M. G.; Afşar, M.; Krechkivska, O.; Nauta, K.; Kable, S. H.; Rawal, A. Aliphatic hydrocarbon content of interstellar dust. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2018, 479 (4), 4336 - 4344 DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty1582. doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty1582
Dover, C. B.; Gallaher, J. K.; Frazer, L.; Tapping, P. C.; Petty, A. J.; Crossley, M. J.; Anthony, J. E.; Kee, T. W.; Schmidt, T. W. Endothermic singlet fission is hindered by excimer formation. Nature Chemistry 2018, 10 (3), 305 - 310 DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2926. doi: 10.1038/nchem.2926
Gholizadeh, E. M.; Frazer, L.; MacQueen, R. W.; Gallaher, J. K.; Schmidt, T. W. Photochemical upconversion is suppressed by high concentrations of molecular sensitizers. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2018, 20 (29), 19500 - 19506 DOI: 10.1039/C8CP02650E. doi: 10.1039/C8CP02650E
Wilcox, C. M.; Krechkivska, O.; Nauta, K.; Schmidt, T. W.; Kable, S. H. Jet-Cooled Spectroscopy of ortho-Hydroxycyclohexadienyl Radicals. The Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2018, 122 (45), 8886 - 8897 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.8b07603. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.8b07603
Yasarapudi, V. B.; Frazer, L.; Davis, N. J. L. K.; Booker, E. P.; Macmillan, A.; Gallaher, J. K.; Roberts, D.; Perrier, S.; Schmidt, T. W. Optimization of energy transfer in a polymer composite with perylene chromophores. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 2018, 6 (27), 7333 - 7342 DOI: 10.1039/C8TC02457J. doi: 10.1039/C8TC02457J
MacQueen, R. W.; Liebhaber, M.; Niederhausen, J.; Mews, M.; Gersmann, C.; Jäckle, S.; Jäger, K.; Tayebjee, M. J. Y.; Schmidt, T. W.; Rech, B.; et al. Crystalline silicon solar cells with tetracene interlayers: the path to silicon-singlet fission heterojunction devices. Materials Horizons 2018, 5 (6), 1065 - 1075 DOI: 10.1039/C8MH00853A. doi: 10.1039/C8MH00853A
McVey, B. F. P.; O’Mara, P. B.; McGrath, A. J.; Faramus, A.; Yasarapudi, V. B.; Gonçales, V. R.; Tan, V. T. G.; Schmidt, T. W.; Gooding, J. J.; Tilley, R. D. Role of Surface Capping Molecule Polarity on the Optical Properties of Solution Synthesized Germanium Nanocrystals. Langmuir 2017, 33 (35), 8790 - 8798 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b01028. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b01028
Frazer, L.; Gallaher, J. K.; Schmidt, T. W. Optimizing the Efficiency of Solar Photon Upconversion. ACS Energy Letters 2017, 2 (6), 1346 - 1354 DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00237. doi: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00237