The polyaniline was synthesized by in situ polymerization in the presence of ¦Â-naphthalenesulfonic acid which acts as template. The structure, morphology and magnetoeletric properties of samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the standard Van Der Pauw DC four-probe method and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) techniques. The results indicated that polyaniline exhibited the hysteresis loops of the ferromagnetic nature and the conductance is high at 53.35 S/cm which possess both magnetic properties and electrical properties.

Highly transparent OLEDs are very attractive for lighting and light beautification applications. While the transparent anode is based on transparent ITO, the transparent cathode is based on a 3-layer approach: (semi)transparent electron injection layer that is a low work function metal, electrically transparent conductor used in order to limit the voltage drop across the OLED area, and overcoat to tune the optical properties without influencing the electrical properties. Transparent encapsulation based on thin film technology is used in order to protect devices from ambient exposure. Using this approach large area (50 cm2) transparent organic light-emitting device having 75% transparency in the off state is demonstrated. The efficiency of the transparent OLED is comparable with that of bottom emission OLED. It is demonstrated that by tuning the thickness and optical properties of both the cathode and the encapsulation the amount of light emitted through the anode and the cathode can be varied while the total amount of light emitted by the OLED remains the same. Moreover device optimization based on optical thin film calculations has been performed such that no angular dependence of emitted light is present both on anode and cathode side.

Electrical conductance of single oligothiophene molecules with a length in the range from 2 to 9 nm was measured as a function of molecular length by a break junction method. The resistance of oligothiophenes increased exponentially from 5-mer to 14-mer while that of molecules longer than 17-mer showed linear dependence on their length. These results indicated that the carrier transport mechanism changed from tunneling to hopping around 14-mer of which the length is approximately 6 nm.

Hexabenzocoronene (HBC) derivatives that are designed to self-assemble into lamellar aggregates were synthesized. The derivatives were deposited as an active layer in an organic field-effect transistor (OFET) using vacuum sublimation. The dihexyl and tetrahexyl derivatives (2H-HBC, 4H-HBC) increased the field-effect mobilities and on/off ratios by a factor of 10 or more compared to unsubstituted HBC and hexahexyl-hexabenzocoronene (6H-HBC). The crystal and thin film structures were determined by powder x-ray diffraction and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD). The data indicate that 2H-HBC and 4H-HBC self-assemble into lamellar aggregates. 2H-HBC forms layers of aromatic cores that are sandwiched by the layers of hexyl groups, which is a preferable crystal structure for carrier transport. The good OFET performance could be explained by the self-assembly in lamellar aggregates of 2H-HBC and 4H-HBC, in contrast to self-assembly in the columnar aggregate of 6H-HBC and the low self-assembling properties of unsubstituted HBC.

The morphology and organic field effect transistor (OFETs) properties of two component blends of semicrystalline 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethinyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) with selected amorphous and semi-crystalline low permittivity side chain aromatic insulating binders deposited at room temperature under vacuum from a good solvent are reported. When blended with an amorphous binder there is evidence from XPS for strong interaction between TIPS-pentacene and binder in the solidified film giving rise to twisted TIPS-pentacene crystals containing dislocations. Due to this strong interaction we see no evidence of segregation of TIPS-pentacene towards the active interface and hence we observe a rapid fall off in saturated hole mobility at a active concentration less than 50 wt-%. When blended with a crystalline binder there is no evidence from XPS of any interaction between TIPS-pentacene and binder in the solidified film. We propose that when a crystalline binder is used, which crystallizes more slowly from solution than TIPS-pentacene, we observe stratification of the active material to both interfaces and as a result an increase of saturated hole mobility to 0.4 cm2/Vs at 20 wt-% in isotactic poly(vinylbisphenyl). The potential application of the approach are in the formulation of low cost organic semiconductors whose solution and solid state properties can be fine tuned by careful binder selection.

The organic photovoltaic technology has developed much in the last few years thanks to the optimization of the solar cell geometry and, specially, to the research for new performing materials. Nevertheless, much work has still to be done in order to better know the real mechanisms regulating the function of such novel class of semiconductors. The study of thin-film micro-structure, and the influence of the deposition parameters on it, is an important issue in order to obtain best optical and electrical properties. Thermal evaporation in high-vacuum chambers is the more suitable deposition technique to obtain organic thin-films with well organize molecular structure. Deposition parameters such as the substrate temperature and deposition rate may have some important effect on the molecules ordering. In this paper the effects of substrate temperature on structural and optical properties have been studied for N,N′-ditridecyl perylene diimide (PTCDI-C13) thin-films. Four samples have been deposited at 30, 60, 90 and 120°C substrate temperature and their absorption has been investigated by photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS) and transmittance spectroscopy. Moreover, simulations of the transmittance spectra have been calculated in order to obtain the optical constants n and k. Finally atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been employed to analyze the superficial morphology of the thin-films.

Variable temperature electrical measurement is well-established and used for determining the conduction mechanism in semiconductors. There is a Meyer¡VNeldel relationship between the activation energy and the prefactor with a Meyer¡VNeldel energy of 30.03 meV, which corresponds well with the isokinetic temperature of about 350 K. Therefore, the multiple trapping and release model is properly used to explain the thermally activated phenomenon. By the method, an exponential distribution of traps is assumed to be a better representation of trap states in band tail. Samples with higher temperature during measurement are observed to show better mobility, higher on-current and lower resistance, which agree well with the multiple trapping and release model proposed to explain the conduction mechanism in pentacene-based OTFTs.

We studied the anisotropic charge transport properties of solution-grown organic single crystals based on a dipolar molecule 4HCB (4-hydroxy-cyanobenzene) by electrical transport measurements, current-voltage and space charge limited current (SCLC), and by X-ray diffraction analyses.

Optical excitation differently affects the flow of charge carriers along the two main planar crystal axis, altering the charge transport anisotropy induced by the molecular π-orbitals stacking. We attribute this behaviour to the presence of an intrinsic molecular dipole and to its different orientation within the crystal lattice. The anisotropy of transport along the three crystallographic directions has been assessed by electrical characterization and correlated to the crystal molecular packing as determined by X-ray analyses.

High-mobility rubrene single-crystal field-effect transistors are built on highly water- and oil-repellent fluoropolymer gate insulators. Roughness is intentionally introduced at the surface once to provide good adhesion to metal films and photoresist polymers for stable bottom electrodes. Before constructing interfaces with rubrene crystals, smoothness of the fluoropolymer surface is recovered by annealing at a moderate temperature to maximize mobility of the carriers induced near the interfaces. The estimated mobilities in the saturation region reproducibly exceeded 15 cm2/Vs for all the ten devices fabricated in this method and reach 30 cm2/Vs for the best two samples among them. The results demonstrate that the water-repellency and smoothness of the dielectric polymers are favorable in the excellent transistor performance.

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is actively investigated for hybrid organic inorganic device applications. The interface greatly influences the electronic properties of these devices. Molecular surface modification of ZnO is being investigated for its potential to control the alignment of energy levels, charge transfer, as well as, interfacial chemical characteristics that influence device fabrication. In this study, octadecyltriethoxysilane (OTES) treatments of thin film ZnO produced by sol-gel decomposition were explored. The ZnO films were hydroxylated and then modified using OTES in solution. The condensation reaction of the OTES at the surface was promoted by the addition of a protoamine catalyst. Contact angle and infrared spectroscopy studies confirmed the surface modification and indicated that the coverage of the OTES was submonolayer. The modified ZnO films were reproducible and stable for long periods. The effects of the modification on subsequently spin-cast poly[3-hexylthiophene](P3HT) and on hybrid ZnO/P3HT organic solar cell performance are discussed.

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.

A technology is demonstrated to fabricate reliable metal-molecule-metal junctions with unprecedented device diameters up to 100 μm. The yield of these molecular junctions is close to unity. Preliminary stability investigations have shown a shelf life of years and no deterioration upon cycling. Key ingredients are the use of a conducting polymer layer (PEDOT:PSS) sandwiched between a bottom electrode with a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) and the top electrode to prevent electrical shorts, and processing in lithographically defined vertical interconnects (vias) to prevent both parasitic currents and interaction between the environment and the SAM [1].

Modeling the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of alkanedithiols with the Simmons model showed that the low dielectric constant of the molecules in the junction results in a strong image potential that should be included in the tunneling model. Including image force effects, the tunneling model consistently describes the current-voltage characteristics of the molecular junctions up to 1 V bias for different molecule lengths [2].

Furthermore, we demonstrate a dependence of the I–V characteristics on the monolayer quality. A too low concentration of long alkanedithiols leads to the formation of looped molecules, resulting in a 50-fold increase of the current through the SAM. To obtain an almost full standing-up phase of 1,14-tetradecanedithiol (C14) a 30 mM concentration is required, whereas a 0.3 mM concentration leads to a highly looped monolayer. The conduction through the full standing-up phase of C14 and C16 is in accordance with the exponential dependence on molecular length as obtained from shorter alkanedithiols [3].

Finally, a fully functional solid-state molecular electronic switch is manufactured by conventional processing techniques. The molecular switch is based on a monolayer of photochromic diarylethene molecular switches. The monolayer reversibly switches the conductance by more than one order of magnitude between the two conductance states via optical addressing. This reversible conductance switch operates as an electronic ON/OFF switch (or a reprogrammable data storage unit) that can be optically written and electronically read [4].

Conducting polymers promise a wider range of successful devices than traditional semiconductors. Differing from the traditional semiconductors in conducting polymers the topology of the system may be significant. Some of the important features such optic and electric properties can be changed largely by loop formation. In this work the loop formation process in conducting polymers has been considered by means of the Green-function method for the electronic spectra fixing. It was shown that at the changing of connectivity of quasi-one dimensional simple polymer strand due to the loop formation two local electronic states are appeared in the electronic spectra of the system. We supposed such model can be important for optic properties of such polymer systems with loops, increase the reaction ability of local loop area, loop stabilization due to the electron-conformational interaction in conducting polymers.

We have fabricated polycrystalline OFETs of two different liquid crystalline materials i.e., ω,ω'-dihexylquaterthipohene (6-QTP-6) and N, N'-ditridecylperylenediimide (13-Per-13) by solution process. Liquid crystalline materials help fabricating uniform thin films on the substrate when spin-coated at their temperature range of liquid crystalline phase. The FETs fabricated with 6-QTP-6 exhibited p-channel performance and its mobility was determined to be 0.04 cm2/Vs, which was comparable to that determined by time-of-flight experiments. The FETs fabricated with 13-Per-13 exhibited n-channel performance and its FET mobility was 0.008 cm2/Vs, while the mobility was increased up to 0.11 cm2/Vs after thermal annealing of the film at a liquid crystalline temperature of 220°C for an hour. Judging from these facts, the grain boundaries are controlled not so as to across the conduction channels formed by self-aligned π-conjugated aromatic cores in liquid crystalline molecules. We conclude that liquid crystalline material is a good candidate for quality polycrystalline thin films for OFETs.

We report a method to fabricate thin films of large-domain organic semiconductor single crystals dispersed over the whole surface of centimeter-scale substrates for field-effect transistors. Growing less than 500-nm thick film-like organic crystals of sub-millimeter sizes densely in a furnace independently of substrates by physical vapor transport, the collection of the single crystals is mechanically attached to the surface of gate dielectric layers. The organic transistors made of large-domain benzo-annulated pentathienoacene crystals exhibited pronounced transistor performances with mobility values of ∼ 0.2-2 cm2/Vs, which is as high as devices of one-piece crystals. The result demonstrates that the above technique provides a method to apply high performance of organic single crystal transistors to real circuitry devices on large-area substrates.

Ultrafine organic semiconductor fibers with the average diameters ranging in sub-micro-down to nanometers (43 nm - 1.7 µm) were fabricated by electrospinning of a mixture of poly(2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene-vinylene) (MEH-PPV) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in various mixed solvents. The average diameter of the as-spun fibers decreased into nanometer scale with decreasing the concentration of PVP. Addition of a volatile organic salt (pyridinium formate, PF) or utilization of three-mixed solvent system was also effective to reduce the size of the diameter of as-spun fibers. After the removal of PVP from as-spun fibers by Soxhlet extraction, pure MEH-PPV fibers were obtained as a ribbon-like structure aligned with wrinkled surface in fiber direction. As-spun fibers showed relatively higher crystallinity, higher conjugation length, and a remarkable blue shift of photoluminescence (PL) peak was observed, in comparison with the cast film. The increase in composition of MEH-PPV and the removal of PVP from as-spun MEH-PPV/PVP fibers resulted in a significant blue-shift in UV-Vis absorption peak and red-shift in PL peak.

the proceeding of the poster session

Morphologically controllable thin-films of a zinc-containing tetraphenylporphyrin (ZnTPP) combined with an L-glutamide lipid has been fabricated and complexation of ZnTPP with fullerene was examined for organic thin-film solar cells, which gave 3 times enhancement of solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency through chlorobenzene-annealing in comparison with the conversion efficiency of untreated one.

We have successfully proposed a patterned P3HT thin-film transistor with cross-linked PVP as a passivation material which was cured at low temperature. The active P3HT layer was isolated via photolithographic technique and O2 plasma RIE etching process. In this method, the leakage current could be reduced effectively compared with that of non-patterned device. Although the mobility was degraded 40 %, but the on/off ratio was significantly improved by over three orders and also the subthreshold swing was compatible with the amorphous Si-TFTs (∼1.5 V/decade). Moreover, we also employed this low temperature curing PVP (120 0C) films as the gate dielectrics which exhibited excellent insulating property with high on/off ratio 1.58×104 and good subthreshold swing 1.66 V/decade.

The charge transport properties in a mixture of regio-regular (poly 3-hexylthiophene) (RR-P3HT) and Zinc Oxide nano particle (ZnO) have been studied using the photoinduced charge extraction by linearly increasing voltage (PhotoCELIV) technique. We have studied the effect of ZnO nanoparticle size (12 nm and 50 nm) on the charge transport properties by fixing the composition ratio of P3HT/ZnO hybrid. The PhotoCELIV mobility in P3HT/50nm-ZnO at room temperature is found to be 7.8×10−5cm2/Vs at an applied electric field of 2.5 × 104 V/cm, which increases to 1.7×10−4cm2/Vs for P3HT/12nm-ZnO composite. The temperature and electric field dependence of charge mobility in these composites have been studied and analysed using Gaussian disorder formalism. The obtained results suggest that the charge transport properties in P3HT/ZnO composite, at low ZnO concentrations, can be tuned by varying the size of the nanoparticle.