August 17, 2011

by Benjamin White

Germany isn’t quite as weird for OU physics Ph.D. student Andrew DiLullo, at least not the third time around. As a fourth-year physics graduate student working with NQPI member Saw-Wai Hla, DiLullo has worked at the University of Hamburg for two semesters the past two years and is currently conducting research at Freie University in Berlin.

Dr. Hla, who will be dividing his time between OU and Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago next year, plans to continue advising DiLullo and his other students as they prepare their doctoral theses. DiLullo, the only Bobcat at the Department of Physics at Freie University, helps Drs. Katharina Franke and Nacho Pascual and their groups in experimental research.

Though the scanning tunneling microscopes (STM) at Freie University have similar capabilities as those in Athens, the molecules they will study are drastically different from the ones OU researchers obtain from chemists in France and Germany.

“All the labs have their own unique qualities,” DiLullo said. “Many of the molecules studied here are synthesized by chemists locally.”

Dr. Franke, with whom DiLullo spends most of his time, investigates the properties of single molecules and molecular networks that could be used in the next generation of electronic devices. Specifically, the group studies transport phenomena, the Kondo effect, molecular charge transfer, and the relatively new field of molecular switches. The majority of Franke’s work will be conducted at very low temperatures in vacuum to better observe fundamental physical properties of the molecules. The primary focus of DiLullo's research is charge transfer between different molecules in covalently bound chains.

The Department of Physics at Freie University currently collaborates with many German physics programs – including Humboldt University in East Berlin, where OU students Heath Kersell and Vincent Roberts currently study – to synthesize tiny molecular switches. Researchers change the state of these switches, which by definition have two positions, using light, electrons or a combination of the two. Once perfected, these switches will be invaluable for use in tomorrow’s electronics –computers that will run exponentially faster and hold many times more information in a chip the same size.

Since DiLullo, who plans to form his doctoral thesis around magnetic molecular systems, has studied in Germany twice before, he no longer sees Germany as such a foreign culture and has learned to appreciate fine German food and drink.

“When I was first here, I instantly recognized things that were new to me.” he said. “Now, with the novelty worn off, I feel very comfortable in a culture and environment which I had once thought of as strange.”
After the summer session concludes in late August, DiLullo plans to return to OU to continue his studies.