Organic Single-Crystalline p-n Heterojunctions for High-Performance Ambipolar Field-Effect Transistors and Broadband Photodetectors

Xiaoming Zhao, Tianjun Liu, Hongli Liu, Shirong Wang, Xianggao Li, Yuteng Zhang, Xueyan Hou, Zilu Liu, Wenda Shi, T. John S. Dennis*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Organic semiconducting single crystals are ideal building blocks for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photodetectors (OPDs) because they can potentially exhibit the best charge transport and photoelectric properties in organic materials. Nevertheless, it is usual for single-crystal OFETs to be built from one kind of organic material in which the dominant transport is either electron or hole; such OFETs show unipolar charge transport. Furthermore, single-crystal OPDs present high performance only in restricted regions because of the limited absorption of one-component single crystals. In an ideal situation, devices which comprise both electron- and hole-transporting single crystals with complementary absorptions, such as single-crystalline p-n heterojunctions (SCHJs), can permit broadband photoresponse and ambipolar charge transport. In this paper, a solution-processing crystallization strategy to prepare an SCHJ composed of C 60 and 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-PEN) was shown. These SCHJs demonstrated ambipolar charge-transport characteristics in OFETs with a balanced performance of 2.9 cm 2 V -1 s -1 for electron mobility and 2.7 cm 2 V -1 s -1 for hole mobility. This demonstration is the first of single-crystal OFETs in which both electron and hole mobilities were over 2.5 cm 2 V -1 s -1 . OPDs fabricated upon as-prepared SCHJs exhibited highly sensitive photoconductive properties ranging from ultraviolet to visible and further to near-infrared regions as a result of complementary absorption between C 60 and TIPS-PEN, thereby attaining photoresponsivities that are among the highest reported values within the OPDs. This work would provide valuable references for developing novel SCHJ systems to achieve significant progress in high-performance ambipolar OFETs and broadband OPDs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)42715-42722
Number of pages8
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume10
Issue number49
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Dec 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • ambipolar charge transport
  • broadband
  • organic field-effect transistors
  • organic photodetector
  • single-crystalline heterojunction

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