About

Marc A. Baldo is the Dugald C. Jackson Professor in Electrical Engineering at MIT and serves as the Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). His research areas include electronic, magnetic, optical, and quantum materials and devices, with a focus on developing groundbreaking sensors, energy transducers, and physical substrates for computation. He leverages computational, theoretical, and experimental tools to address shared challenges facing humanity through systems that sense, process, and transmit energy and information. Recognized for his significant contributions to engineering research, practice, and education, Marc Baldo was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2024. His work is integral to advancing the fields of quantum materials, energy systems, and electronic devices.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Materials science
• Nanotechnology
• Chemistry
• Photochemistry
• Optoelectronics
• Organic chemistry
• Electrical engineering
• Engineering
• Psychology
• Data science
• Physics
• Physical chemistry

Selected publications

• Dark-triplet-induced instability and efficiency roll-off in blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices

  Physical Review Applied · 2026-01-07

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The relative instability of high-efficiency blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) is an important and longstanding challenge. Conventional models of degradation emphasize the dynamics of emissive triplet excitons on phosphorescent molecules, neglecting the potential role of nonemissive, “dark,” triplet excitons on host and charge blocking molecules. Bright and dark triplet dynamics are probed using surface plasmon polariton-coupled modulation and magnetic exciton annihilation modulation, respectively. It is observed that dark triplet excitons dominate both the instability and efficiency roll-off of a high-performance blue phosphorescent OLED. Dissociating dark triplets both improves device stability and reduces efficiency losses at high brightness by a factor of 2. The combined benefit to stability of Purcell engineering and dark triplet management is a factor of 3.5. The results demonstrate that dark triplet excitons reduce the potential benefit of Purcell engineering, emphasizing the importance of characterization and control of dark triplets to realize the goal of stable blue phosphorescent OLEDs.

  PublisherDOI

• Tunable and highly sensitive functionalized carbon-nanotube-based integrated systems for chemical gas sensing

  Nature Sensors · 2026-02-25

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Chemical gas sensing is essential for healthcare, environmental monitoring and industrial safety, yet current sensors lack sensitivity, selectivity and scalability. Carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) offer high surface area and low-power operation, but they traditionally provide limited chemical discrimination. Here we report an integrated sensing platform that combines CNFETs with conductive metal–organic frameworks and catalytic metal nanoparticles to achieve tunable selectivity and enhanced sensitivity. The hybrid architecture boosts response by up to two orders of magnitude and enables on-chip pattern generation for robust gas classification. As proof of concept, we apply the platform to the classification of clinically relevant bacteria and yeast species by analysing the volatile organic compounds emitted from cultures grown on agar plates with 95% accuracy, using a portable measurement set-up. By integrating functionalized CNFETs into a commercial foundry-derived system, this work introduces a rapid, cost-effective and scalable gas sensing approach for real-world biomedical and industrial sensing applications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Singlet Fission Provides a Scalable Pathway to High Efficiency Silicon Photovoltaics

  ACS Energy Letters · 2025-09-08 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Singlet Fission Provides a Scalable Pathway to High Efficiency Silicon Photovoltaics

  ChemRxiv · 2025-07-02 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Every ten years the photovoltaic market grows tenfold, driven by increasing cell efficiencies and lower manufacturing and installation costs. If the next decade maintains this trend it must be via a technological transformation: The first commercial silicon-based devices that exceed the 29.4% efficiency limit of conventional ‘single junction’ silicon cells.Tandem cells are a contender to lead the transition. They complement the response of silicon in the near infrared with a second solar cell tuned for the visible spectrum. Tandem cells, however, have important constraints, typically including the need for current matching between two solar cells, more complex manufacturing requirements, and less consistent performance under varying environmental and illumination conditions. In fact, tandems are yet to be manufactured at scale or produce significant energy terrestrially.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The role of dark triplets in the degradation of blue phosphorescent OLEDs

  2025-09-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The relative instability of high efficiency blue phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Devices (OLEDs) is an important and longstanding challenge. Conventional models of degradation emphasize the dynamics of emissive triplet excitons on phosphorescent molecules, neglecting the potential role of non-emissive, ‘dark’, triplet excitons on host and charge blocking molecules. In this talk, bright and dark triplet dynamics are probed in-situ using surface plasmon polariton-coupled modulation and magnetic exciton annihilation modulation, respectively. It is observed that dark triplet excitons dominate both the instability and efficiency roll-off of a high-performance blue phosphorescent OLED. Dissociating dark triplets both improves device stability and reduces efficiency losses at high brightness by a factor of 2. The combined benefit to stability of Purcell engineering and dark triplet management is a factor of 3.5. The results demonstrate that dark triplet excitons reduce the potential benefit of Purcell engineering, emphasizing the importance of in-situ characterization and control of dark triplets to realize the goal of stable blue phosphorescent OLEDs.

  PublisherDOI

• Dark exciton signatures in blue OLEDs probed by strong magnetic fields in situ

  2025-08-01

  articleSenior author

  Understanding the degradation mechanisms of blue phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) is key to developing the next generation of bright and stable blue PhOLEDs for applications in phones, TVs and solid-state lighting. Annihilation processes involving dark excitons are thought to be an important cause of degradation in blue PhOLEDs, as they form 6 eV states which break carbon-carbon bonds in the host, emitter, and transport layers, creating defect sites which quench the electroluminescence of the device. While these annihilation processes are thought to be ubiquitous, observing them directly has proven difficult through optical means due to their dark nature, and their connection to device degradation has yet to be fully understood. In this work, the annihilation rates of dark excitons are modulated in blue PhOLEDs in situ through the application of strong DC and AC magnetic fields. By relating the changes in these rates to device efficiency and stability, we demonstrate the promise of strong magnetic fields as an in situ device diagnostic critical to developing next generation blue PhOLEDs.

  PublisherDOI

• Closed Loop Superparamagnetic Tunnel Junctions for Reliable True Randomness and Generative Artificial Intelligence

  Nano Letters · 2025-02-26 · 7 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Physical devices exhibiting stochastic functions with low energy consumption and high device density have the potential to enable complex probability-based computing algorithms, accelerate machine learning, and enhance hardware security. Recently, superparamagnetic tunnel junctions (sMTJs) have been widely explored for such purposes, leading to the development of sMTJ-based systems; however, the reliance on nanoscale ferromagnets limits scalability and reliability, making sMTJs sensitive to external perturbations and prone to significant device variations. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of closed loop three-terminal sMTJs as reliable and potentially scalable sources of true randomness, in the absence of external magnets. By leveraging dual-current controllability and incorporating feedback, we stabilize the switching operation of superparamagnets and reach cryptographic-quality random bitstreams. The realization of controllable and robust true random sMTJs underpins a general hardware platform for computing schemes exploiting the stochasticity in the physical world, as demonstrated by the generative artificial intelligence example in our experiment.

  PublisherDOI

• Exciton fission enhanced silicon solar cell

  Joule · 2025-05-22 · 8 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  <h2>Summary</h2> While silicon solar cells dominate global photovoltaic energy production, their continued improvement is hindered by the single-junction limit. One potential solution is to use molecular singlet exciton fission to generate two electrons from each absorbed high-energy photon. We demonstrate that the long-standing challenge of coupling molecular excited states to silicon solar cells can be overcome using sequential charge transfer. Combining zinc phthalocyanine, aluminum oxide, and a shallow junction crystalline silicon microwire solar cell, the peak charge generation efficiency per photon absorbed in tetracene is (138% ± 6%), comfortably surpassing the quantum efficiency limit for conventional silicon solar cells and establishing a new, scalable approach to low-cost, high-efficiency photovoltaics.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Two to One: Entropic Considerations in Upconversion

  The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters · 2025-07-10 · 1 citations

  article

  Photon upconversion, a nonlinear optical process that converts low-energy photons into higher-energy photons, has garnered significant attention due to its wide range of potential applications in bioimaging, optogenetics, 3D printing and photoconversion. However, there is an oft-overlooked second-law requirement that free energy must be expended when decreasing photon number during the upconversion process. Interestingly, for practical applications under reasonable flux conditions, the second law of thermodynamics insists upon an ∼80 nm downshift in the emission wavelength, analogous to a Stokes shift. We also find that the maximum efficiency of the upconversion process must inherently be photon flux dependent, which is pleasingly consistent with reported upconversion experiments and so may be a fundamental and general property of an efficient upconversion system. Importantly, our results guide the design of molecular upconversion, as the demands of thermodynamics require that efficient systems intended to operate at a specific input flux must include a specific wavelength downshift, a hitherto overlooked design parameter.

  PublisherDOI

• Stochastic nanomagnets as current digitizers for efficient probabilistic machine learning

  Physical Review Applied · 2025-10-03

  article

  Analog in-memory computing based on crossbar arrays offers a path to energy-efficient AI hardware, but has been limited by reliance on bulky, power-hungry analog-to-digital converters. This study introduces stochastic nanomagnets driven by spin-orbit torque as intrinsic analog-to-digital interfaces, enabling compact, fast, low-power digitization while maintaining high computational accuracy. These results suggest a promising direction for energy-efficient AI hardware accelerators and significant advances in next-generation machine-learning hardware.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Low energy magnetic domain wall logic

  NSF · $319k · 2011–2014

• E2CDA: Type II: Memory, Logic, and Logic in Memory Using Three Terminal Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

  NSF · $400k · 2016–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Troy Van Voorhis

  61 shared

• Stephen R. Forrest

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  53 shared

• Mark E. Thompson

  University of Southern California

  49 shared

• Nicholas J. Thompson

  Louisiana State University

  43 shared

• Daniel N. Congreve

  Stanford University

  41 shared

• Vladimir Bulović

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  39 shared

• Moungi G. Bawendi

  33 shared

• Eric Hontz

  25 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1990

• M.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1986

• B.S., Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1983

Awards & honors

• Eighteen MIT faculty honored as “Committed to Caring” for 20…
• MIT community members elected to the National Academy of Eng…