Sarah Jane Baker

Sarah’s research is at the intersection of nanoscience and photonics. She seeks to develop more efficient photovoltaics to make solar energy harvesting practical to implement on larger scales. Her goal is to use singlet fission macromolecules to drive multielectron photocatalytic reactions. The model often used to depict singlet fission discounts the potential for direct harvesting from the coupled biexciton (triplet pair)—the intermediate state between the singlet and two “free” triplets—in artificial photosynthetic processes. Sarah aims to optimize energy harvesting by understanding how chromophore design, including descriptions of quantum interference, controls the nature and lifetime of triplet pair states.
She will use these concepts to demonstrate how individual triplet excitons can be directly extracted from a triplet pair prior to dissociation, avoiding certain loss-prone processes and ultimately harvesting more energy from less sunlight than current technology allows. Outside of her research, Sarah enjoys drawing, baking, and spending time upstate.