In 2019, Azzuliani Supangat received a grant from Lightsources for Africa, the Americas, Asia, Middle East and Pacific (LAAAMP) and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. The grant is meant to bring researchers from areas without light sources to established facilities, but the pandemic prevented Supangat from coming to the Advanced Light Source until 2022. A professor at the Universiti Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Supangat is interested in organic semiconductors. She and her student, Syaza Hisamuddin, are spending two months at the ALS working with Staff Scientist Chenhui Zhu.
Once she was awarded the funding, Supangat applied to use grazing-incidence small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS/WAXS) at Beamline 7.3.3. She has researched organic semiconductors for years, but the synchrotron light source will allow her to fully characterize these materials. “We didn’t have the capabilities to characterize these samples at the molecular level until we came to the ALS,” Supangat said. The insights will deepen her understanding of both the fundamental physics and applications like humidity sensors and photodiodes. During Supangat and Hisamuddin’s time in Berkeley, Zhu also introduced them to researchers at the Molecular Foundry, where they will be able to use spectroscopy as well.
“We don’t want two months to be the end of this work,” Zhu said, and Supangat agreed. She is already planning future collaborations with Zhu and has scheduled a talk in her home department to encourage others to apply for LAAAMP. When Supangat and Hisamuddin return to Malaysia, they will also be taking along their memories of Bay Area sights like the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf.
