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We propose a double-injection current transient technique for the study of charge-carrier transport in thin insulating films of low-mobility materials with reduced carrier bimolecular recombination compared to the Langevin type. This experimentally simple technique, allows us to estimate the sum of the faster carrier and the slower carrier mobility’s (μf+μs) and the slower carrier mobility (μs). Furthermore, in thin films when the RC current overlaps the injection current transients we propose to estimate these transport parameters using the extracted charge as a function of injection pulse duration. The method is applied on bulk-heterojunction solar cells made from blends of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-[6,6]-methanofullerene. We have experimentally verified the technique by measuring the charge carrier mobility’s and compared them with results obtained using standard time-of-flight and carrier extraction using linearly increasing voltage techniques.

The authors report on fabrication and characterization of a polymeric spin valve with the conjugated polymer regioregular (poly 3-hexylthiophene) (RRP3HT) as the spacer layer. The device structure is La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO)/polymer/Co, with half-metallic, spin-polarized LSMO acting as the spin-injecting electrode. The spin valve shows behavior similar to a magnetic tunnel junction though the nonmagnetic spacer layer (∼100nm) is much thicker than the tunneling limit. They attribute this behavior to the formation of a thin spin-selective tunneling interface between LSMO and RRP3HT caused by RRP3HT, chemically attaching to LSMO as observed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement. This gives rise to ∼80% magnetoresistance (MR) at 5K and ∼1.5% MR at room temperature. They found that by introducing monolayer of different organic insulators between LSMO and RRP3HT the spin-selective interface is destroyed and the spin injection is reduced. Their results show that organic materials are promising candidate...

Ambipolar charge carrier mobility and recombination in bulk-heterojunction solar cells based on the mixture of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-[6,6]-methanofullerene (PCBM) has been studied using injection current transients. The experimental results demonstrate double injection with bimolecular recombination limiting the injection current. We found that charge carrier bimolecular recombination is significantly reduced compared to Langevin recombination. We have measured the temperature and electric field dependence of the reduced bimolecular recombination coefficient and the results suggest that the electron and hole pathways are different and the recombination is controlled by the probability of the carriers to meet at the polymer/PCBM interface.

The operating principle of a hygroscopic insulator field-effect transistor has been investigated. The semiconductor poly(3-hexylthiophene) shows an increased conductivity after applying the poly(vinylphenol) (PVP) insulator, which is attributed to an interfacial dipole layer caused by the permanent dipole moment in PVP. The effects of solvents on the transistor device indicate that low molecular weight protic solvents such as water, methanol, and ethanol affect the I-V characteristics significantly, in contrast to 1-propanol and aprotic solvents such as acetonitrile. The presence of a protic solvent inside the device insulator gives rise to an ion-assisted modulation of the transistor source-drain current.

Charge carrier mobility and recombination in a bulk heterojunction solar cell based on the mixture of poly[2-methoxy-5-(3,7-dimethyloctyloxy)-phenylene vinylene] (MDMO-PPV) and 1-(3-methoxycarbonyl)propyl-1-phenyl-(6,6)-C61 (PCBM) has been studied using the novel technique of photoinduced charge carrier extraction in a linearly increasing voltage (Photo-CELIV). In this technique, charge carriers are photogenerated by a short laser flash, and extracted under a reverse bias voltage ramp after an adjustable delay time (tdel). The Photo-CELIV mobility at room temperature is found to be μ=2×10−4cm2V−1s−1, which is almost independent on charge carrier density, but slightly dependent on tdel. Furthermore, determination of charge carrier lifetime and demonstration of an electric field dependent mobility is presented.

The increasing interest in technologies capable of tracking a biomarker down to the physical limit points toward new opportunities in early diagnostics of progressive diseases. Indeed, single-molecule detection technologies are foreseen to enable clinicians to associate the tiniest increase in a biomarker with the progression of a disease, particularly at its early stage. Bioelectronic organic transistors represent an extremely powerful tool to achieve label-free and single-molecule detection of clinically relevant biomarkers. These electronic devices are millimetric in size and in the future could be mass-produced at low cost. The core of the single molecule with a large transistor (SiMoT) platform, based on an electrolyte-gated field-effect transistor, is a gold gate electrode biofunctionalized with a self-assembled monolayer, a densely packed layer of recognition elements. So far, only the SiMoT detection of proteins, using the corresponding antibodies as recognition elements, has been reported. In this study, the SiMoT sensing response toward genomic biomarkers is proposed. Herein, the gate is functionalized with a genomic biomarker for multiple sclerosis (miR-182). This is relevant, not only because a limit of detection of a single molecule is achieved but also because it proves that the SiMoT label-free, single-molecule detection principle is the only one of its kind that can detect, by means of the same platform, both protein and genomic markers.

We present a novel ion enhanced organic transistor using a thick, ion conducting mem-brane (MemFET). The membrane acts both as gate insulator and as mechanical sup-port. The fabrication of the membranes starts with a PVDF-film as base material, which is functionalized by the roll-to-roll suitable electron beam irradiation induced grafting technique. For comparison, we have also used the commercially available Nafionr-membrane. The MemFETs are fabricated by standard laboratory fabrication techniques using soluble conducting and semiconducting polymers. The MemFETs operate at 1 V.

Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations are a powerful tool to study the dynamics of charge carriers in organic photovoltaics. However, the key characteristic of any photovoltaic device, its current-voltage ($J$-$V$) curve under solar illumination, has proven challenging to simulate using KMC. The main challenges arise from the presence of injecting contacts and the importance of charge recombination when the internal electric field is low, i.e., close to open-circuit conditions. In this work, an experimentally calibrated KMC model is presented that can fully predict the $J$-$V$ curve of a disordered organic solar cell. It is shown that it is crucial to make experimentally justified assumptions on the injection barriers, the blend morphology, and the kinetics of the charge transfer state involved in geminate and nongeminate recombination. All of these properties are independently calibrated using charge extraction, electron microscopy, and transient absorption measurements, respectively. Clear evidence is provided that the conclusions drawn from microscopic and transient KMC modeling are indeed relevant for real operating organic solar cell devices., final version; license updated

We have measured the recombination dynamics of long-lived polarons in two regioregular poly(3-alkylthiophenes) (RR-PATs) using cw- and transient (in the ms time regime) photoinduced absorption (PA). We find that the recombination of the long-lived polarons in the millisecond time regime can be fitted with a combination of one (fast) hyperbolic decay component and a (slow) modified hyperbolic. The fast component is almost temperature independent at low temperatures, while the slow component shows an exponential temperature dependence in the whole measured temperature range. We have modeled the transient PA decay using bimolecular recombination of polarons in a continuum band, including multiple trapping and retrapping in an exponential distribution of localized states. We show that this model fairly well approximates the transient decay components and the theoretical temperature dependence of the slow decay component is in good agreement with the measured values in RR-PATs.

The roll-to-roll reverse gravure (RG) coating technique was used to produce thin homogeneous films (∼100 nm) for organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. The conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and the active layer regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl):[6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT:PCBM) were successfully subsequently RG coated on an ITO covered plastic substrate in ambient air. Working solar cells were achieved after annealing and thermal evaporation of the top contact. The AM1.5 power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the RG coated organic solar cells was determined to 0.74% (at 100 mW/cm2). This was very similar to the results of a reference device that was spin coated on a glass substrate in a nitrogen glove box.

We report the fabrication and characterization of alternating current light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with quinquethiophene as the emitting material. We have obtained equal electroluminescence intensity in both bias sections. From the frequency response of the LEDs, we have estimated the device response times and compared them with the response times obtained from the transient response of dc LEDs. Langmuir-Blodgett film deposition technique has been employed to control the thickness of the emitting layer on the molecular scale. We have shown that the response times originate from the accumulation rather than the transit of charge carriers. We have compared the photo- and electroluminescence spectra of QT LEDs.

Using drift-diffusion simulations, we have clarified the effect of two-dimensional lamellar ordering on the device performance and, in particular, the open circuit voltage in donor–acceptor type organic solar cells. The simulations are performed both in systems where direct (band-to-band) recombination dominates and in systems where trap-assisted recombination dominates. Results show that lamellar ordering reduces both the amount of direct and trap-assisted recombination, which is beneficial for device performance. The effect is particularly prominent for small lamellar thicknesses (∼ 1 nm ). It is furthermore shown that in the case of s-shaped current–voltage characteristics due to electrostatic injection barriers the s-shape becomes less prominent for thinner lamellar thicknesses.

We show HIFETs fabricated completely by printing methods in ambient air on a low-cost plastic substrate (Mylarr A). In this work the ink-jet printing (IJP) method was used for printing all electrodes, while the semiconductor and insulator layers (for which patterning is not necessary) were applied with the roll-to-roll reverse gravure coating (RGC) technique. IJP is a low-cost flexible non-contact direct roll-to-roll compatible printing technique that produces patterns at high resolution (1-100 =m) with low material consumption. The RGC technique, on the other hand, is not used for patterning, but has the advantage of producing thin homogeneous layers for a wide range of ink viscosities.

We report a study on Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PUT) in a crosslinkable matrix of linoleic acid (LA). Optical absorption studies at elevated temperatures indicated that the structure of PHT/LA films is stable even up to 460 K. The films were used to fabricate light-emitting diodes (LEDs), showing emission at about 2.0 eV and a quantum efficiency approaching 0.01%. The stability tests indicated that the lifetime of the best PHT/LA LEDs was about three orders of magnitude higher than that of reference LEDs using an arachidic acid matrix.

Suppressing charge recombination is key for organic solar cells to become commercial reality. However, there is still no conclusive picture of how recombination losses are influenced by the complex nanoscale morphology. Here, new insight is provided by revisiting the P3HT:PCBM blend, which is still one of the best performers regarding reduced recombination. By changing small details in the annealing procedure, two model morphologies were prepared that vary in phase separation, molecular order and phase purity, as revealed by electron tomography and optical spectroscopy. Both systems behave very similarly with respect to charge generation and transport, but differ significantly in bimolecular recombination. Only the system containing P3HT aggregates of high crystalline quality and purity is found to achieve exceptionally low recombination rates. The high-quality aggregates support charge delocalization, which assists the re-dissociation of interfacial charge-transfer states formed upon the encounter of free carriers. For devices with the optimized morphology, an exceptional long hole diffusion length is found, which allows them to work as Shockley-type solar cells even in thick junctions of 300 nm. In contrast, the encounter rate and the size of the phase-separated domains appears to be less important., final version, journal reference and DOI added