Search

We report the observation of band-like transport from printed polymer thin films at room temperature. This was achieved from donor-acceptor type thiophene-thiazole copolymer that was carefully designed to enhance the planarity of the backbone and the resulting transfer integral between the macromolecules. Due to the strong molecular interaction, the printed polymer film exhibited extremely low trap density comparable to that of molecular single crystals. Moreover, the energy barrier height for charge transport could be readily reduced with the aid of electric field, which led formation of extended electron states for band-like charge transport at room temperature.

It is essential to control the electronic structure of graphene in order to apply graphene films for use in electrodes. We have introduced chemical dopants that modulate the electronic properties of few-layer graphene films synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. The work function, sheet carrier density, mobility, and sheet resistance of these films were systematically modulated by the reduction potential values of dopants. We further demonstrated that the power generation of a nanogenerator was strongly influenced by the choice of a graphene electrode with a modified work function. The off-current was well quenched in graphene films with high work functions (Au-doped) due to the formation of high Schottky barrier heights, whereas leakage current was observed in graphene films with low work functions (viologen-doped), due to nearly ohmic contact.

We present the synthesis, characterization, and structural analysis of a thiophene-rich heteroacene, dibenzothiopheno[6,5-b:6',5'-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (DBTTT) as well as its application in field-effect transistors. The design of DBTTT is based on the enhancement of intermolecular charge transfer through strong S-S interactions. Crystal structure analysis showed that the intermolecular π-π distance is shortened and that the packing density is higher than those of the electronically equivalent benzene analogue, dinaphtho-[2,3-b:2',3'-f]thieno[3,2-b]thiophene (DNTT). The highest hole mobility we obtained in polycrystalline DBTTT thin-film transistors was 19.3 cm(2)·V(-1)·s(-1), six times higher than that of DNTT-based transistors. The observed isotropic angular mobilities and thermal stabilities at temperatures up to 140 °C indicate the great potential of DBTTT for attaining device uniformity and processability.

Field-effect transistors based on single crystals of organic semiconductors have the highest reported charge carrier mobility among organic materials, demonstrating great potential of organic semiconductors for electronic applications. However, single-crystal devices are difficult to fabricate. One of the biggest challenges is to prepare dense arrays of single crystals over large-area substrates with controlled alignment. Here, we describe a solution processing method to grow large arrays of aligned C(60) single crystals. Our well-aligned C(60) single-crystal needles and ribbons show electron mobility as high as 11 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1) (average mobility: 5.2 ± 2.1 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1) from needles; 3.0 ± 0.87 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1) from ribbons). This observed mobility is ~8-fold higher than the maximum reported mobility for solution-grown n-channel organic materials (1.5 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1)) and is ~2-fold higher than the highest mobility of any n-channel organic material (~6 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1)). Furthermore, our deposition method is scalable to a 100 mm wafer substrate, with around 50% of the wafer surface covered by aligned crystals. Hence, our method facilitates the fabrication of large amounts of high-quality semiconductor crystals for fundamental studies, and with substantial improvement on the surface coverage of crystals, this method might be suitable for large-area applications based on single crystals of organic semiconductors.