Francesco Furlan is an EPSRC Research Fellow in the Materials Department. His research explores how the molecular structure of advanced materials can be used to control light, charge and spin. He is particularly interested in chiral materials, materials that exist in “left-handed” and “right-handed” forms, and hybrid perovskites, with the goal of developing more efficient optoelectronic, spintronic and quantum technologies.

His previous work focused on circularly polarised light-emitting devices based on chiral organic semiconductors. During this research, he investigated the mechanisms that allow these materials to generate and control circularly polarised light. He was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship and was a member of the European training network HEL4CHIROLED.

By studying the chiroptical, photophysical, charge-transport and electro-optical properties of chiral materials, he is developing new strategies for improving device efficiency and overcoming key limitations in their use in optoelectronic and spintronic technologies. His work led to the first demonstration of electrical control over the spin angular momentum of photons in an organic chiral light-emitting material. This made it possible to switch the handedness of emitted light exploiting only the transport of charges within a light-emitting diode.

His current research focuses on designing and understanding new hybrid organic–inorganic chiral materials, particularly chiral metal-halide perovskites. These emerging materials could offer new ways to control light, charge and spin, but their properties remain underexplored. Francesco is developing new chiral perovskites with stronger chiroptical responses, improved processability and the ability to control both charge and spin without external magnetic fields. He is also investigating how these materials can be incorporated into optoelectronic and spintronic devices.

The long-term aim of this work is to reduce the energy consumption of everyday electronics such as displays, improve the efficiency of photovoltaic technologies, and enable a new generation of affordable, solution-processable systems for creating and reading quantum states.