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Nonlinear optical spectroscopy

On the tracks of carrier transport

Nature Photonics volume 1, pages 570–571 (2007)Cite this article

Optical methods to probe electric fields in organic transistors in situ during operation provide a deeper understanding of factors that limit carrier mobility in these devices.

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) enable the possibility of solution-based processing of a variety of flexible electronic devices including organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), LEDs, photovoltaic cells, sensors and radiofrequency identification tags. However, considerable challenges, such as low carrier mobility, irreproducible electrical characteristics and long-term stability need to be overcome for these devices to gain widespread acceptance. A fundamental limitation to a better understanding of these organic devices is the lack of adequate optical spectroscopic methods to analyse the molecular structure and carrier transport in situ during operation. On page 581, Takaaki Manaka and co-workers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology1 demonstrate that time-resolved microscopic optical second-harmonic generation (TRM-SHG) can be used to image electric fields and carrier dynamics in pentacene field-effect transistors, thereby providing a direct methodology to visualize and characterize OSC films during operation of OFETs.

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Figure 1: Schematic showing a typical structure for an organic semiconductor transistor.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David Gracias is in the Department of Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA. dgracias@jhu.edu,

    David Gracias

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  1. David Gracias
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Gracias, D. On the tracks of carrier transport. Nature Photon 1, 570–571 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2007.184

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