Generation of photocurrent from Photosystem I biomolecular complexes

Photosynthetic proteins are used in organic devices to generate photocurrent. A setup consisting of a monochromator and lock-in amplifiers is used to measure the photocurrent along with an HP4156 analyzer. Atomic force microscopy images are also taken including those taken with a voltage-biased tip. Some devices are shown to work initially under illumination and then fail upon subsequent illumination. A charge trapping mechanism is postulated to cause the failure. Nonetheless, the devices hold enormous potential and the preliminary results show that research in this area will be fruitful, even though evaporation of protective layers does not usually yield functional devices.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Kumar, Rajay, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Marc A. Baldo.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16977

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/16977