MNT-301

Unit-1

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Organic Semiconductors Organic light emitting devices(OLEDs), Self assembly of complex organic molecules Molecular switches, Thermochromic switches Motor molecules Bio-mimetic components Charge transfer complexes Molecular connections, Contact issues Conducting polymers Light emitting polymers Polymerpolymer heterostructures Plastic FETs, Organic Solar cells Organic Photodiodes, Electronic paper, Ink jet printing

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Unit-1
Monomer: A monomer (from Greek mono "one" and meros "part") is a molecule that may bind chemically to other molecules to form a polymer. Polymer: A polymer is a large molecule (macromolecule) composed of repeating structural units. These sub-units are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. Although the term polymer is sometimes taken to refer to plastics. Oligomer: An oligomer is a molecule that consists of a few monomer units (oligos, is Greek for "a few"), in contrast to a polymer that, at least in principle, consists of an unlimited number of monomers . Natural polymeric materials such as shellac, amber, and natural rubber have been used for centuries. A variety of other natural polymers exist, such as cellulose, which is the main constituent of wood and paper. The list of synthetic polymers includes synthetic rubber, Bakelite, neoprene, nylon, PVC, polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene,

polyacrylonitrile, PVB, silicone, and many more. The preparation of plastics consists mainly of carbon atoms. Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma
abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

1.1 Organic Semiconductor

1.1.1 Introduction Inorganic semiconductors like Si or Ge are as dominant material in electronics from the before prevailing metals. Now at the beginning of the 21st century, a new electronics revolution that has become possible due to the development and understanding of a new class of materials, commonly known as Organic Semiconductors. There were several draw-backs preventing practical use of these early devices. Neither high enough current densities and light output nor sufficient stability could be achieved. The main obstacles were the high operating voltage as a consequence of the crystal thickness in the micrometre to millimetre range. The difficulties in scaling up crystal growth as well as preparing stable and sufficiently wellinjecting contacts to them.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Applications: such as large area, flexible light sources and displays, low-cost printed integrated circuits or plastic solar cells from these materials.

Organic semiconductors are not new. The first studies of the photoconductivity of anthracene crystals. 20th century. Later on, triggered by the discovery of electroluminescence in the 1960s. Molecular crystals were intensely investigated by many researchers. These investigations could establish the basic processes involved in optical excitation and charge carrier transport.

The 1970s the successful synthesis and controlled doping of conjugated polymers established the second important class of organic semiconductors which was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in the year 2000.

Together with organic photoconductors (molecularly doped polymers) these conducting polymers have initiated the first applications of organic materials as conductive coatings or photoreceptors in electrophotography.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

In 1980s, the undoped organic semiconductors revived due to the demonstration of an efficient photovoltaic cell incorporating an organic heterojunction of p- and n-conducting materials as well as the first successful fabrication of thin film transistors from conjugated polymers and oligomers.

High-performance electroluminescent diodes from vacuum-evaporated molecular films. Organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) have progressed rapidly and meanwhile lead to first commercial products incorporating OLED displays.

Other applications of organic semiconductors e.g. as logic circuits with organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) or organic photovoltaic cells (OPVCs) are expected to follow in the near future

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

1.1.2 Types of Organic Semiconductors: Two major classes of organic semiconductors: low molecular weight materials and polymers. An important difference between the two classes of materials lies in the way how they are processed to form thin films.

Whereas small molecules are usually deposited from the gas phase by sublimation or evaporation.

polymers can only be processed from solution. e.g. by spin-coating or printing techniques.

Both

have

in

common

conjugated

-electron

system

being formed by the pz-orbitals of sp2-hybridized molecules. C-atoms in the

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

As compared to the -bonds forming the backbone of the molecules, the -bonding is significantly weaker.

Therefore, the lowest electronic excitations of conjugated molecules are the *transitions with an energy gap typically between 1.5 and 3 eV leading to light absorption or emission in the visible spectral range.

Table 1: The family of the polyacenes. The energy gap can be controlled by the

degree of conjugation in a molecule. offers a Thus wide to chemistry range tune of the of

possibilities optoelectronic organic materials.

properties

semiconducting

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Some prototype materials that can be used for optoelectronic applications are:

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Basic Properties of Organic Semiconductors

1.1.3 Basic Properties of Organic Semiconductors: Organic molecular crystals are van der Waals bonded solids implying a considerably weaker intermolecular bonding as compared to covalently bonded semiconductors like Si or GaAs. Consequences are seen in mechanical and thermodynamic properties like reduced hardness or lower melting point. But much weaker delocalization of electronic wavefunctions among neighbouring molecules, which has direct implications for optical properties and charge carrier transport. But in case of Polymers The morphology of polymer chains can lead to improved mechanical properties. Nevertheless, the electronic interaction between adjacent chains is usually also quite weak in this class of materials.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

1.1.3.1 Optical Poperties: The weak electronic delocalization, to first order the optical absorption and luminescence spectra of organic molecular solids are very similar to the spectra in the gas phase or in solution

In particular, intramolecular vibrations play an important role in solid state spectra and often these vibronic modes can be resolved even at room temperature.

Due to the crystal structure or the packing of polymer chains a pronounced

anisotropy can be found. Additionally disordered

organic solids usually show a considerable spectral

broadening.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

As a consequence of this weak electronic delocalization, organic semiconductors have two important peculiarities as compared to their inorganic counterparts.

One is the existence of well-defined spin states (singlet and triplet) like in isolated molecules which has important consequences for the photophysics of these materials (see Fig. 4).

However, since intersystem crossing is a weak process, this also sets an upper limit for the electroluminescence quantum efficiency in OLEDs.

A second important difference originates from the fact that optical excitations (excitons) are usually localized on one molecule and therefore have a considerable binding energy of typically 0.5 to 1 eV.

Thus in a photovoltaic cells this binding energy has to be overcome before a pair of independent positive and negative charge carriers is generated (see Fig. 5).

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

1.1.3.2 Charge Carrier Transport Transport of electrons or holes in an organic molecular solid is based on ionic molecular states.

(In order to create a hole, an electron has to be removed to form a radical cation M+ out of a neutral molecule M. This defect electron can then move from one molecule to the next. In the same way, electron transport involves negatively charged radical ions M-.

(Qualitatively, the same arguments hold for polymers, however, in this case charged states are usually termed positive or negative polarons.)

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

From this picture one can clearly see that due to the already mentioned exciton binding energy the optical gap between the ground state and the first excited singlet state is considerably less than the single particle gap to create an uncorrelated electron-hole pair.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

In going from molecular crystals to disordered organic solids one also has to consider locally varying polarization energies due to different molecular environments which lead to a Gaussian density of states for the distribution of transport sites as shown in Fig. 7.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Depending on the degree of order the charge carrier transport mechanism in organic semiconductors can fall between two extreme cases:

Band or Hopping transport. Band transport is typically observed in highly purified molecular crystals at not too high temperatures.

However, electronic delocalization is weak the bandwidth is only small as compared to inorganic semiconductors

At room temperature mobilities in molecular crystals reach only values in the range 1 to 10 cm2/Vs

The band transport is the temperature dependence given by T with n = 1, 2 ,3

-n

Disordered materials (Amorphous), for example polymers are based on hopping transport. Hopping transport have much lower mobility values (103 cm2/Vs) in many cases is much less. The mobility is depends on the applied electric field: The mobility strongly depends on the degree of order and purity in organic semiconductors and therefore to a great deal on the preparation and growth conditions.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

At macroscopic level, the current through a material is given by the charge carrier density (n) and the carrier drift velocity (v), mobility () and the electric field (F)

At macroscopic level, the current through a material is given by the charge carrier density (n) and the carrier drift velocity (v), mobility () and the electric field (F).

Charge Current Density: charge carrier density (n), the intrinsic carrier density in a semiconductor with an energy gap (Eg) and an effective density of states N0

Taking typical values for an organic semiconductor with Eg= 2.5 eV and N0=1021 cm3 leads to a hypothetical carrier density of ni=1 cm3 at room temperature.

(Nevertheless the corresponding value for Si (Eg= 1.12 eV and N0=1019 cm3) is with ni=1010 cm3 many orders of magnitude higher)

In order to overcome the limitations posed by the low intrinsic carrier density, different means to increase the carrier density in organic semiconductors can be applied:

1. (electro-)chemical doping, 2. carrier injection from contacts, 3. photo-generation of carriers, and By: Abhishek Sharma Prepared 4. field-effect doping.
abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Self Assembly in Polymers

Several amphiphilic substances also form ordered layers on solid substrates. Requirement for such behavior is: an adsorption of these molecules onto the surface, an intramolecular mobility and intermolecular stabilizing interactions. Typical examples are the n-aliphatic tail-groups with medium chain length (8-30 carbon atoms) connected to a hydrophilic polar or easily polarizable head group that can react with the substrate surface, and with end-groups that do not react with the substrate. In the case of head-groups bound on the surface in a high density, the end-groups stabilize each other by van der Waals interactions. So a cooperative effect of layer stabilization can be observed, which results in two-dimensional highly ordered monolayers. These arrangements are denoted as self-assembled monolayers (SAM).

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

10

The self-assembly of amphiphilic ionic/hydrophobic block copolymers generally takes place in dilute solution.

Block copolymers with both strongly and weakly dissociating (pH-sensitive) ionic blocks are considered.

We focus mostly on structural and morphological transitions that occur in selfassembled aggregates as a response to varied environmental conditions (ionic strength and pH in the solution).

The assembly of amphiphilic (macro) molecules in aqueous environments is a generic mechanism of self-organization.

means, the spontaneous formation of self assembled structures of phospholipids and biomacromolecules, (it is the outcome of a delicate balance between attractive and repulsive forces, among which hydrophobic attraction, hydrogen bonding, metalcoordination forces, and steric or electrostatic repulsion play dominant roles.)

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Applications include: (1) precise control over the size (on nanometer length scale) and morphology of the assembled aggregates, and (2) pronounced stimuli-responsive properties.

These structures can change their size, total number, etc. in a significant way when the physical and/or chemical properties of the surroundings (temperature, pH, ionic strength, etc.) are varied smoothly, or that the structures recognize weak specific stimuli such as trace concentrations of biologically active or toxic molecules.

Structures formed by amphiphilic block copolymers composed of a hydrophilic block with ionic and, in particular, pH-sensitive (weak polyelectrolyte) segments, linked to a

hydrophobic block, are more responsive. This is because the strength of repulsive Coulomb interactions between the polyelectrolyte (PE) segments can be efficiently tuned by variations in pH or/and ionic strength in the aqueous solution.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

11

Charge transfer complexes

According to electrical properties, materials can be divided into four-types: insulator, semiconductor, conductor and superconductor. In general, a material with a conductivity less than 10-7 S/cm is regarded as an insulator. A material with conductivity larger than 103 S/cm is called as a metal. The conductivity of a semiconductor is in a range of 10-4 10 S/cm depending upon doping degree. Organic polymers usually are described by (sigma) bonds and bonds. The - bonds are fixed and immobile due to forming the covalent bonds between the carbon atoms. On the other hand, the -electrons in a conjugated polymers are relatively localised, unlike the electrons. Conductive polyacelene (PA) doped with iodine. is a new field of conducting polymers, which is also called as synthetic metals.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Principle: a polymer has to imitate a metal, which means that electrons in polymers need to be free to move and not bound to the atoms.

an oxidation or reduction process is often accompanied with adding or withdrawing of electrons, suggesting an electron can be removed from a material through oxidation or introduced into a material through reduction.

In 1977, Alan G. MacDiarmidthey accidentally discovered that insulating conjugated PA could become conductor with a conductivity of 103 S/cm by iodine doping.

Materials: scientists thought that PA (Poly Acetylene) could be regarded as an excellent candidate of polymers to be imitating a metal.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

12

Since discovery of conductive PA by iodine doping [1], other -conjugated polymers, such as polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PANI), polythiophenes(PTH), phenylene)(PPP), phenylenevinylene)(PPV), and poly(ppoly(ppoly(2,5-

thienylenevinylene)(PTV) have been reported as conducting polymers.

Usually the ground states of conjugated polymers are divided into degenerate and nondegenerate.

The prototype of degenerate polymers is trans-polyacetylene, which has alternating C-C and C=C bonds as shown. The total energy curve of trans-polyacetylene has two equal minima, where the alternating C-C and C=C bonds are reversed.

On the other hand, a non-degenerate polymer has no two identical structures in the ground state. Most conjugated polymers, such as PPy and PANI belong to non-degenerate.

The band gaps of conjugated polymers are estimated to be typically in the range between 1 and 3 eV from their electronic absorption spectra. These observations are consistent with their insulator or semiconductor electrical properties abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma

Molecular Switches
The principle of nano switch is the molecular movements that are linked to electronic processes, and on the other hand, electronic transfers lead to, at least temporarily, changes in the chemical structure. Nanoswitching processes are not limited to tunneling effects or single molecular processes. Because, the nanomorphology of complex materials provides possibilities for nanoelectronic switching. Example: The use of the spontaneous spatial organization of domains in block-polymers with a sequence of electron-conductive sections to control the electrical conductivity. Mixtures of pentadecylphenol with polystyrene-poly-p-vinylpyridine block-copolymer that has been protonated with methylsulfonic acid exhibits thermally controlled electrical conductivity. This effect is caused by molecular reorientation processes from a lamellar domain structure with character istic dimensions of 35nm and 5nm at 100oC over a non-lamellared block structure (with increased conductivity) into a matrix structure with integrated columns with distances of about 28nm at 150oC
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

13

A molecular switch is a nanoscale machine which switches reversibly between two or more states.

Types of Molecular Switches: 1. Photochromic molecular switches: which are able to switch between electronic irradiated by configurations light of a when specific

2. Chiroptical molecular switches: are a specific subgroup with

photochemical switching taking place between an enantiomeric pairs. In these compounds the readout is by circular dichroism rather than by

wavelength. Each state has a specific absorption maximum which can then be read out by UV-VIS spectroscopy. Members of this class include

ordinary spectroscopy. Hindered alkenes are used

azobenzenes,

diarylethenes,

dithienylethenes, fulgides, stilbenes, spiropyrans and phenoxynaphthacene quinones.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Motor molecules
In general terms, a motor may be defined as a device that consumes energy in one form and converts it into motion or mechanical work. Molecular motors are biological molecular machines that are the essential agents of movement in living organisms. Many protein based molecular motors harness the chemical free energy released by the hydrolysis () of ATP in order to perform mechanical work. (ATP) adenosine-5-triphosphate In terms of energetic efficiency, this type of motor can be superior to currently available man-made motors. One important difference between molecular motors and macroscopic motors is that molecular motors operate in the thermal bath, an environment in which the fluctuations due to thermal noise are significant.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

14

A molecular motor is a protein that uses the energy of hydrolysis of a small molecule such as a nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) to complete an enzymatic cycle during the course of which the protein performs directional motion.

Molecular motors are therefore unusual machines that accomplish what man-made devices are unable to do: the direct and isothermal conversion of chemical energy into mechanical energy, without the need to rely on an intermediate energy carrier, heat or electricity.

Synthetic Molecular Motor: Synthetic molecular motors are molecular machines capable of rotation under energy input. The term "molecular motor" has traditionally referred to a naturally occurring protein that induces motion (via protein dynamics), some groups also use the term when referring to non-biological, non-peptide synthetic motors.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Conducting Polymers
Conjugated polymers are intrinsic semiconductors whose conductivity increases through doping. This doping can be achieved by either chemical or electrical methods.

Polypyrole

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

15

Synthesis: Polymer chains may be doped chemically through oxidation - primarily when an atom with high electron affinity such as iodine or oxygen is present.

Oxidation of the chain results in the formation of a polaron, which is a radical cation associated with lattice distortion (Figure 1.2).

Upon further doping, an additional electron can be removed from either the polaron to form a bipolaron, or from elsewhere on the chain to form two polarons.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Polythiophenes are a very good example of this class of compounds. In addition to offering high conductivity upon doping, they have the added benefit of being relatively environmentally and thermally stable.

Unsubstituted polythiophene has good thermal stability and moderate conductivity after doping with iodine, however the resulting polymers are insoluble and not melt-processable. The conductivity of such polymers is the result of several processes. E.g., in traditional polymers such as polyethylenes, the valence electrons are bound in sp3 hybridized covalent bonds. Such "sigma-bonding electrons" have low mobility and do not contribute to the electrical conductivity of the material. However, in conjugated materials, the situation is completely different. Conducting polymers have backbones of contiguous sp2 hybridized carbon centers. One valence electron on each center resides in a pz orbital, which is orthogonal to the other three sigma-bonds. The electrons in these delocalized orbitals have high mobility when the material is "doped"
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma by oxidation, which removes some of these delocalized electrons. abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

16

Limitations: The manufacturing costs, material inconsistencies, toxicity, poor solubility in solvents, and inability to directly melt process.

Applications: organic solar cells, printing electronic circuits, organic light-emitting diodes, actuators, electrochromism, supercapacitors, chemical sensors and biosensors.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Light emitting Polymer

The discovery of electroluminescence in poly(para-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) (Burroughes et al. 1990) has led to a re-awakened interest in conjugated polymers. These technologies include cheap and flexible light emitting displays, photovoltaic devices, optical switching, and field-effect transistors. We now turn to a description of the optical properties. Figures 1 and 2 show the characteristic linear absorption spectrum of the phenyl-based light emitting polymers.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

17

Polymer-polymer heterostructures

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

18

Organic Light Emitting Diode

An OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound which emits light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes. Generally, at least one of these electrodes is transparent.

Materials: Polyparaphenylenevinylene exhibits a high electrical conductivity and is used as a material for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Construction: By integration of electrically conductive polymers such as substituted polythiophenes in a nanoporous membrane and wiring by a metal base electrode and at least a partially transparent membrane electrode, organic light diodes have been constructed.

They generate photons via the field-based emission of electrons from a cathode, which are then accelerated over a short distance onto a luminescent material.

To achieve large electrical field strength (about 0.3 V nm) with moderate voltages, the gaps between the cathode and counter electrodes should be as small as possible.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Injection of charge carriers from contacts plays important role for the operation of organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs).

This requires low energetic barriers at the metal-organic interfaces for both contacts to inject equally high amounts of electrons and holes.

Relatively high electric fields being applied to OLEDs (typically 5 to 10 V across a layer thickness of 100 nm yield F = 0.5...1MV/cm), low mobility materials Alq3

Current scaling with the 3rd power of the reciprocal thickness

Instead of the displayed combination of a triphenylamine polymeric derivative and Alq3, a OLEDs usually employ

conductive polymer. (PEDOT:PSS) together with luminescent polymers like PPV or PFO derivatives.
HTL: hole transport layer. ETL: electron transport layer EML: emission layer. Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma Alq3 abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

19

In organic semiconductors large fraction of the excited states formed by charge carrier recombination are triplets.

The most efficient OLEDs nowadays make use of energy transfer to so-called triplet emitters, where the presence of heavy metals renders the transition from the triplet state to the ground state via phosphorescence an allowed process.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Organic Photo Detector or Diode

OPDs, the device was fabricated onto an ITO coated glass substrate by OMBD (Organic molecular beam deeposition) at a background pressure of 105 Pa. The device consists of the heterostructure of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) and N,N-bis(2,5di-tert-butylphenyl) 3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (BPPC) as a p-type and an n-type material, respectively. CuPc fi lm has high sensitivity and stability in air, and it shows a strong absorption band at the wavelength range of 550780 nm, whereas BPPC shows an absorption band in the range of 400550 nm. The thickness of CuPc layer was set at 30 nm, which corresponds to the exciton diffusion length in the photogenerated layer. As an electrode, 30 nm thick Au was deposited on the BPPC layer. The device was covered by a glass plate in Ar gas atmosphere to prevent oxidation of the organic layers. The active area of the device was fixed at 0.01 mm2, in order to reduce the influence of the RC time constant.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

20

For devices fabricated by solution process, poly(9,9-dioctylfl uorene) and a phosphorescent iridium derivative, (iridium (III) bis(2-(4,6-difl uorophenyl) pyridinato-N,C2) (FIrpic), or iridium (III) bis(2-(2-benzothienyl) pyridinato-N,C3) (acetylacetonate) (btp2Ir(acac)), were used as a host and a dopant material, respectively.

The materials were dissolved in 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene or chloroform solution and the organic layers were fabricated by spin coating. The active area of the device was fixed at 0.03 mm2. The device structure and the materials used in the experiments are shown in Figure 15.4a and b for vacuum and solution processed devices, respectively.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

21

Organic Solar cell (Plastic Solar Cell or Polymer Solar Cell)

An organic solar cell or plastic solar cell is a type of polymer solar cell that uses organic electronics, It deals with conductive organic polymers or small organic molecules, for light absorption and charge transport to produce electricity from sunlight by the photovoltaic effect. The optical absorption coefficient of organic molecules is high, so a large amount of light can be absorbed with a small amount of materials. These cells are made by sandwiching a layer of organic electronic materials between two metallic conductors The difference of work function between the two conductors sets up an electric field in the organic layer. When the organic layer absorbs light, electrons will be excited to the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) and leave holes in the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) forming excitons.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Materials: Bulk heterojunction devices usually consist of a mixture of soluble PPV (or P3AT) and fullerene derivatives.

Structure: Alternatively, mixed layers of evaporated small molecules like CuPc (Polycarbonate) and C60 can be used.

Other than organic material, previously used materials has the high absorption coefficient (105 cm-1) than organic semiconductors. Organic semiconductors faces some problem of the high binding energy.

this can be overcome by making use of a photoinduced charge transfer between an electron donor like PPVand the fullerene C60 as an acceptor

Bulk

heterojunction

devices

usually

consist of a mixture of soluble PPV (or P3AT) and fullerene derivatives. Alternatively, mixed layers of evaporated small molecules like CuPc and C60 can be used.
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

22

Due to the short exciton diffusion length of typically 10 nm only, efficient OPVCs use the so-called bulk-heterojunction concept of mixing donor and acceptor in one single layer.

In spite of the huge progress recently achieved, there are still challenges to achieve sufficient lifetime of OPVCs under ambient conditions or the availability of low-band gap materials to make better use of the solar spectrum

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Organic Field effect transistor or plastic FETs

An organic field-effect transistor (OFET) is a field effect transistor using an organic semiconductor in its channel. OFETs can be prepared either by vacuum evaporation of small molecules, by solutioncasting of polymers or small molecules, or by mechanical transfer of a peeled singlecrystalline organic layer onto a substrate. These devices have been developed to realize low-cost, large-area electronic products and biodegradable electronics. The most commonly used device geometry is bottom gate with top drain- and source electrodes, because this geometry is similar to the thin-film silicon transistor (TFT) using thermally grown Si/SiO2 oxide as gate dielectric. Organic polymers, such as poly(methyl-methacrylate) (PMMA), can also be used as dielectric.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

23

Materials: One common feature of OFET materials is the inclusion of an aromatic or otherwise conjugated -electron system, facilitating the delocalization of orbital wavefunctions.

Electron withdrawing groups or donating groups can be attached that facilitate hole or electron transport. OFETs employing many aromatic and conjugated materials as the active semiconducting layer have been reported, including small molecules such as rubrene, tetracene, pentacene, diindenoperylene, perylenediimides,

tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ), and polymers such as polythiophenes (especially poly 3-hexylthiophene (P3HT)), polyfluorene, polydiacetylene, poly 2,5-thienylene vinylene, poly p-phenylene vinylene (PPV). Rubrene-based OFETs show the highest carrier mobility 2040 cm2/(Vs). pentacene-based OFETs reported 10 times lower mobilities than rubrene. Polycrystalline tetrathiafulvalene and its analogues result in mobilities in the range 0.1 1.4 cm2/(Vs). The mobility exceeds 10 cm2/(Vs) in solution-grown or vapor-transport-grown single crystalline hexamethylene-tetrathiafulvalene (HMTTF).
Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

Design: Three essential components of field-effect transistors are the source, the drain and the gate. Field-effect transistors usually operate as a capacitor.

They are composed of two plates. One plate works as a conducting channel between two ohmic contacts, which are called the source and the drain contacts.

The other plate works to control the charge induced into the channel, and it is called the gate. The direction of the movement of the carriers in the channel is from the source to the drain. Hence the relationship between these three components is that the gate controls the carrier movement from the source to the drain.

When this capacitor concept is applied to the device design, various devices can be built up based on the difference in the controller - i.e. the gate.

Prepared By: Abhishek Sharma abhishek_hbd@yahoo.com

24