Bio

Professor Dougherty is an experimental condensed matter physicist focused on the study of solid surfaces, interfaces, and thin films. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Maryland at College Park and did postdoctoral research in the Surface Science Center at the University of Pittsburgh and in the Surface and Microanalysis Science Division at NIST, Gaithersburg. He started a new Surface Physics laboratory at NC State in 2008. At NC State, he was a founding member of the NSF Center for Molecular Spintronics and the interdisciplinary Organic and Carbon Electronics Lab (ORaCEL).

Area(s) of Expertise

The Dougherty Research Group at NC State uses scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy as primary experimental tools. They are focused on characterizing the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of surfaces and interfaces. Specific materials of interest include carbon-based materials (small organic molecules, polymers, and graphene) and their interfaces with metal and dielectric materials. The group's experiments provide new insights into the complicated and still mysterious quantum properties of condensed matter. In addition, the properties of interfaces studied by the group are of practical use since they often control charge injection efficiency from electrode contacts and carrier mobility in transistor channels.

Publications

• Ligand field exciton annihilation in bulk CrCl3 , The Journal of Chemical Physics (2024)
• Linking Electronic and Structural Disorder Parameters to Carrier Transport in a Modern Conjugated Polymer , ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2024)
• Mapping the interfacial energetic landscape in organic solar cells reveals pathways to reducing non-radiative losses , Matter (2024)
• Spreading resistance effects in tunneling spectroscopy of α−RuCl3 and Ir0.5Ru0.5Cl3 , Physical review. B./Physical review. B (2023)
• Band Edge Control of Quasi-2D Metal Halide Perovskites for Blue Light-Emitting Diodes with Enhanced Performance , Advanced Functional Materials (2021)
• Band Edge Control of Quasi‐2D Metal Halide Perovskites for Blue Light‐Emitting Diodes with Enhanced Performance , Advanced Functional Materials (2021)
• Dynamics of domain boundaries at metal--organic interfaces , The Journal of Chemical Physics (2021)
• Dynamics of domain boundaries at metal–organic interfaces , The Journal of Chemical Physics (2021)
• Timescales of excited state relaxation in $α$- Ru Cl 3 observed by time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy , Physical Review B (2021)
• Timescales of excited state relaxation in α−RuCl3 observed by time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy , Physical review. B./Physical review. B (2021)