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Optically switchable transistor via energy-level phototuning in a bicomponent organic semiconductor

Nature Chemistry volume 4, pages 675–679 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

Organic semiconductors are suitable candidates for printable, flexible and large-area electronics. Alongside attaining an improved device performance, to confer a multifunctional nature to the employed materials is key for organic-based logic applications. Here we report on the engineering of an electronic structure in a semiconducting film by blending two molecular components, a photochromic diarylethene derivative and a poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) matrix, to attain phototunable and bistable energy levels for the P3HT's hole transport. As a proof-of-concept we exploited this blend as a semiconducting material in organic thin-film transistors. The device illumination at defined wavelengths enabled reversible tuning of the diarylethene's electronic states in the blend, which resulted in modulation of the output current. The device photoresponse was found to be in the microsecond range, and thus on a technologically relevant timescale. This modular blending approach allows for the convenient incorporation of various molecular components, which opens up perspectives on multifunctional devices and logic circuits.

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Figure 1: Devices components, geometry and energetics.
Figure 2: Photoresponse of current and mobility at different film compositions.
Figure 3: Reversible transistor characteristics.
Figure 4: Time-resolved photoresponse.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is dedicated to Professor Klaus Müllen on the occasion of his 65th birthday. This work was financially supported by European Community's Marie-Curie Initial Training Networks SUPERIOR (PITN-GA-2009-238177) and GENIUS (PITN-GA-2010-264694), Seventh Framework Programme FP7 ONE-P large-scale project no. 212311, European Research Council project SUPRAFUNCTION (GA-257305) and the International Center for Frontier Research in Chemistry. Generous support by the German Research Foundation (DFG via SFB 658 subproject B8 and via SPP 1355) is acknowledged. Access to UPS was granted by J.P. Rabe (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin). BASF AG, Bayer Industry Services and Sasol Germany are thanked for generous donations of chemicals. A.S. acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation in the form of a CAREER Award. D.T.D. is supported by a Stanford Graduate Fellowship and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Portions of this research were carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, a national user facility operated by Stanford University on behalf of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nanochemistry Laboratory, Institut de Science et d'Ingénierie Supramoléculaires, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7006, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Strasbourg, 8 allée Gaspard Monge, Strasbourg, 67000, France

    Emanuele Orgiu, Núria Crivillers & Paolo Samorì

  2. Department of Chemistry, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, Berlin, 12489, Germany

    Martin Herder, Lutz Grubert, Michael Pätzel & Stefan Hecht

  3. Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Newtonstraße 15, Berlin, 12489, Germany

    Johannes Frisch & Norbert Koch

  4. Laboratory for Organic Matter Physics, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, Nova Gorica, SI-5000, Slovenia

    Egon Pavlica & Gvido Bratina

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, 94305, California, USA

    Duc T. Duong & Alberto Salleo

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  1. Emanuele Orgiu
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Contributions

S.H. and P.S. conceived the experiments and designed the study. M.H., M.P. and L.G. carried out the synthesis as well as photochemical and electrochemical characterization. E.O. and N.C. performed the device experiments. E.O., G.B. and E.P. designed and performed the time-response measurements. J.F. carried out the UPS measurements. D.T.D. and A.S. performed the grazing incidence X-ray diffraction experiments. All authors discussed results and contributed to the interpretation of data. E.O., P.S., N.K. and S.H. co-wrote the paper. All authors contributed to editing the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Norbert Koch, Stefan Hecht or Paolo Samorì.

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Orgiu, E., Crivillers, N., Herder, M. et al. Optically switchable transistor via energy-level phototuning in a bicomponent organic semiconductor. Nature Chem 4, 675–679 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1384

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