Gently vibrating a solution of semiconductor molecules as they crystallize into a conductive film helps to reduce structural flaws. This yields higher-quality organic transistors that can be used in flexible, lightweight electronic devices.
A team led by Oana Jurchescu of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, used audio speakers operating at a low-frequency of around 100 hertz to shake molecules as they formed a thin crystalline film (apparatus pictured). This boosted the film's semiconducting properties, making it almost as good a semiconductor as single crystals grown by diffusion from molecular vapour — a method that, unlike shaking liquid solutions, does not lend itself to high-throughput manufacture at room temperature.
Other methods such as heating or including additives in the film also improve superconductivity, but vibration might be cheaper and more scalable, the researchers think.
Adv. Mater. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.201302838 (2013)
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Sound shakes semiconductors. Nature 502, 9 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/502009c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/502009c
