Final Activity and Management Report Summary - TOPOS (Tailoring Growth and Opto-Electronic Properties for Organic Nanoscale Semiconductor Devices)
Organic electronics devices are of enormous interest for low-cost, large-area, flexible electronics and, at the same time, they offer unique opportunities for fundamental research. In this project I focused on two aspects of organic electronics that are attracting a great deal of interest in the community: charge injection in organic field effect transistors and mixed ionic/electronic conductivity. Charge injection is an issue of paramount importance in organic field effect transistors. The presence of Schottky barriers at the interface between the metal electrodes and the organic semiconductors often limits injection efficiency and results in degraded device performance. To overcome this issue I explored the use of single wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as electrode materials in OFETs.
Thanks to their field emission properties, CNTs are able to inject both electrons and holes into organics with low injection barriers, promoting tunnelling injection. I used using CNT array electrodes, having one end connected to a large metal (Ti) pad and the other end embedded in the organic semiconductor layer. Devices with CNTs electrodes showed improved injection and switching characteristics compared with those using conventional metallic electrodes both for and p-type (phthalocyanines) and n-type (fullerene derivative) materials. The ability of organic semiconductors to conduct ionic in addition to electronic carriers, has been exploited to demonstrate novel devices. Among these, organic electrochemical transistors are particularly promising for applications in chemical and biological sensing and are expected to play a primary role in the emerging field of organic bioelectronics. These devices can be operated in aqueous electrolytes as ion-to-electron converters, thus providing an interface between the worlds of biology and electronics.
During this project I explored the device of physics organic electrochemical transistors and gave a significant contribution in establishing novel unconventional patterning techniques for device fabrication.
Thanks to their field emission properties, CNTs are able to inject both electrons and holes into organics with low injection barriers, promoting tunnelling injection. I used using CNT array electrodes, having one end connected to a large metal (Ti) pad and the other end embedded in the organic semiconductor layer. Devices with CNTs electrodes showed improved injection and switching characteristics compared with those using conventional metallic electrodes both for and p-type (phthalocyanines) and n-type (fullerene derivative) materials. The ability of organic semiconductors to conduct ionic in addition to electronic carriers, has been exploited to demonstrate novel devices. Among these, organic electrochemical transistors are particularly promising for applications in chemical and biological sensing and are expected to play a primary role in the emerging field of organic bioelectronics. These devices can be operated in aqueous electrolytes as ion-to-electron converters, thus providing an interface between the worlds of biology and electronics.
During this project I explored the device of physics organic electrochemical transistors and gave a significant contribution in establishing novel unconventional patterning techniques for device fabrication.