Why OghmaNano?

Each year humanity releases more than \(33\) gigatonnes of \(CO_2\) into the atmosphere, steadily changing its composition. Since 1960, atmospheric \(CO_{2}\) levels have risen by around 30%, driving global warming and intensifying environmental risks. Reducing emissions is no longer optional - it is essential.

Thin-film technologies such as solar cells and OLEDs provide practical ways forward: generating low-carbon electricity and using it more efficiently. To accelerate progress, researchers need tools that make it simple to explore how these devices work at a fundamental level. Powerful simulation should not be reserved for specialists; it must be accessible to the wider experimental community.

OghmaNano was created with this aim. It combines the depth of a multiphysics device simulator with a focus on usability - bringing advanced modelling into the hands of experimentalists and students as well as theorists. By lowering the barrier to simulation, OghmaNano helps researchers worldwide design, analyse, and improve thin-film technologies, contributing in a small but meaningful way to addressing the climate challenge.

Although designed with solar cells and OLEDs in mind, OghmaNano also supports the broader class of diode-based devices - from sensors to rectifiers - opening opportunities across energy, electronics, and photonics.

The Name

OghmaNano was stands for Organic and Hybrid Materials Nanodevice Simulator. The name "Oghma" also refers to the Gaelic god Ogma, whose appearance is described as "sun-faced" or "radiant," and who is credited with creating Ogham-the earliest known script for writing Irish Gaelic. Just as Ogma brought structure to language, OghmaNano brings structure and accuracy to the simulation of light–matter interactions. The focus on precise modelling of optical and radiative effects made the name a natural fit.

What is the history of OghmaNano?

OghmaNano was first developed in 2009 as a simple 1D drift–diffusion simulator for solar cells. Over the past 16 years it has grown into a comprehensive multiphysics platform, capable of modelling a wide variety of materials and devices. Today, it has been downloaded thousands of times and cited in hundreds of peer-reviewed publications worldwide (see publication list). It contains around 250,000 lines of C and Python - a similar scale to the avionics software that flew the Space Shuttle.