Bell Labs Physicist Who Developed Pure Organic Crystals Is Optics Valley Lecturer

A Bell Labs physicist whose research shows it is possible to make single organic crystals of such high purity that they are potentially useful in a host of new optical and electronic technologies will open the fall Optics Valley Lecture series at the University of Arizona tomorrow, Sept. 5.

Bertram Batlogg, director of physical sciences research at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., and professor at ETH-Zurich, Switzerland, two years ago led researchers in making "pentacene" crystals so pure their electrical properties might be exploited any number of ways. Since, Batlogg and colleagues have published at least a dozen papers about it in Science and Nature.

Batlogg, who created the first electrically pumped organic laser, will talk on "The Organic Revolution: From Transistors to Superconductors to Lasers" at 5:30 p.m. in the Steward Observatory Lecture Hall (Room N210). The lecture is free and open to the public.

"People have worked to purify such crystals for 40 years," said UA chemistry Professor Jean-Luc Bredas, who chairs the lecture series committee. "What they have achieved is really amazing. I call it the 'organic revolution.'"

Faculty from chemistry, physics, astronomy, applied mathematics, engineering and optical sciences organize the Optics Valley Lecture Series, which is funded by the university's College of Science, College of Engineering and Mines, and Optical Sciences Center. More information is online at http://www.opticsvalley.arizona.edu