Lucile Teague
Lucile Teague
October / November 2011
Volume 9 Number 5
For Lucile Teague, seeing is believing and is the basis for creating. The physical chemist at the Savannah River National Laboratory uses scanning Kelvin probe microscopy to map charge transport in thin film semiconducting materials.
Her examination, which allows her to correlate the structural and electronic properties of thin films of small organic and polymeric semiconductors, is contributing to an understanding of how the materials work.
That understanding is the key for creating new electronics technologies. “You have to understand the fundamentals of how something works before you can put it to use,” she says. “You also have to identify what potential problems there are, so they can be addressed, for a material to be functional in the real world. You won’t know the potential applications of a material until you examine these fundamentals.”
Organic semiconductors are already used in a number of devices, but despite their promising potential, some still experience issues with long-term stability. In some cases, long-term cycling or environmental conditions can erode the semiconductor’s performance. Through scanned probe microscopy, Teague has been able to observe these materials in working devices to explore the effects of film structure on the charge transport as well as how their electrical performance can change over time.
That same kind of up-close examination has also led her to identify a method for manipulating the charge transport in a way that can prevent degradation in the performance of organic semiconductor-based devices. “Organic components are the wave of the future of electronics,” she says. Not only do they have the potential for lower manufacturing costs, they can be applied to flexible substrates, resulting in components that bend or curl like a piece of paper. These properties give organic components tremendous potential for applications from display technologies—like computer screens and TV sets—to sensors. Teague’s solution to the stability issue could help make that potential a reality, enabling a wider range of organic-based devices practical for long-term use.
She’s driven by the challenge of using the fundamentals she discovers through the microscope to build the knowledge base that makes new technologies possible in much the same way that she puts needle to thread in her leisure time to make arts and crafts gifts for family and friends.
Lucile Teague began her research career studying the atomic structure of materials and single-molecule surface reaction chemistry, before branching into a study of their electronic properties as well. “I like being able to see what can’t be seen by the eye alone, and explore the basics of how things work.”
With microscopy, she says, she can study a working transistor and map how charge moves through it “in as close to real time as you can get.”
Her expertise in the characterization and application of micro and nano-scale materials has proven useful in a variety of fields, in addition to her progress with organic semiconductors. As a principal scientist in SRNL’s enabling technologies group, her work also includes the characterization of micro and nano-scale materials, investigation of the structural and electrical properties of solid-state semiconductors and surface functionalization methods to tailor the chemical properties of surfaces (at the molecular level) for applications in a variety of areas that include environmental sampling and sensing.
A native Carolinian, Teague came to Savannah River in 2007, following the completion of a National Research Council postdoctoral appointment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a year as a postdoctoral research associate in nanoscience at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Her interest in studying the fundamental nature of materials grows out of what she considers a universal curiosity about the world around us. “My high school chemistry teacher started off the school year with the question ‘What isnot chemistry?’” she explains. That question led her to the realization that “Everybody does ‘science,’ whether they call it that or not,” she says. What is needed for the future, she says, is for young people to let that natural curiosity lead them into science and math fields.
“We need people interested in math and science—the more the better,” she says. “We need people who are enthusiastic about learning new things and creating new technologies. It is just as important, though, to have people with the expertise to sustain and improve our current technologies.”
Angeline French is a writer at Savannah River National Laboratory.
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