Poppy Asman (Warwick) - Modelling dissipative transport in the quantum Hall regime

The thermoelectric effect is an interesting phenomenon in physics and is related to the entropy per charge of an excitation. Its study can then lead to the understanding of the statistics of quantum Hall states. I will provide an overview of a model of transport in the quantum Hall regime in terms of an equivalent random resistor network, and some results on the dependence of the total response on the distribution of resistors. I will outline progress on how this model can take account of edge state contributions for the thermoelectric response.

David Turban (Cambridge) - Singlet fission in pentacene dimers

Singlet fission (SF) is a multi exciton generation process which could be harnessed to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. Recently, fast and efficient SF has been observed in molecular dimers derived from the pentacene molecule. We employ constrained density functional theory to explore the electronic states participating in fission. The SF mechanism is discussed with a focus on symmetry constraints peculiar to the dimer systems under consideration. We find that solvent-induced symmetry breaking plays a crucial role in the SF process.