High-performance organic small-molecule panchromatic photodetectors

Advancing Detectivity and Stability of Near-Infrared Organic Photodetectors via a Facile and Efficient Cathode Interlayer

Near-infrared (NIR) organic photodetectors (OPDs) are pivotal in numerous technological applications due to their excellent responsivity within the NIR region. Polyethylenimine ethoxylated (PEIE) has conventionally been employed as an electron transport layer (hole-blocking layer) to suppress dark current (JD) and enhance charge transport. However, the limitations of PEIE in chemical stability, processing conditions, environmental impact, and absorption range have spurred the development of alternative materials. In this study, we introduced a novel solution: a hybrid of sol-gel zinc oxide (ZnO) and N,N'-bis(N,N-dimethylpropan-1-amine oxide)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PDINO) as the electron transport layer for NIR-OPDs. Our fabricated OPD exhibited significantly improved responsivity, reduced internal traps, and enhanced charge transfer efficiency. The detectivity, spanning from 400 to 1100 nm, surpassed ∼5 × 1012 Jones, reaching ∼1.1 × 1012 Jones at 1000 nm, accompanied by an increased responsivity of 0.47 A/W. Also, the unpackaged OPD remarkedly demonstrated stable JD and external quantum efficiency (EQE) over 1000 h under dark storage conditions. This innovative approach not only addresses the drawbacks of conventional PEIE-based OPDs but also offers promising avenues for the development of high-performance OPDs in the future.

Customizable Organic Charge-Transfer Cocrystals for the Dual-Mode Optoelectronics in the NIR (II) Window

Organic molecules have been regarded as ideal candidates for near-infrared (NIR) optoelectronic active materials due to their customizability and ease of large-scale production. However, constrained by the intricate molecular design and severe energy gap law, the realization of optoelectronic devices in the second near-infrared (NIR (II)) region with required narrow band gaps presents more challenges. Herein, we have originally proposed a cocrystal strategy that utilizes intermolecular charge-transfer interaction to drive the redshift of absorption and emission spectra of a series BFXTQ (X = 0, 1, 2, 4) cocrystals, resulting in the spectra located at NIR (II) window and reducing the optical bandgap to ∼0.98 eV. Significantly, these BFXTQ-based optoelectronic devices can exhibit dual-mode optoelectronic characteristics. An investigation of a series of BFXTQ-based photodetectors exhibits detectivity (D*) surpassing 1013 Jones at 375 to 1064 nm with a maximum of 1.76 × 1014 Jones at 1064 nm. Moreover, the radiative transition of CT excitons within the cocrystals triggers NIR emission over 1000 nm with a photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of ∼4.6% as well as optical waveguide behavior with a low optical-loss coefficient of 0.0097 dB/μm at 950 nm. These results promote the advancement of an emerging cocrystal approach in micro/nanoscale NIR multifunctional optoelectronics.

Effective film surface treatment for improving external quantum efficiency of photomultiplication type organic photodetector

A simple yet effective method based on methanol treatment is proposed to enhance the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the photomultiplication type organic photodetector with a structure of Glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3H:PC71BM (100:1, wt./wt.)/Al. By modifying the PEDOT:PSS film surface with methanol, the EQE of photodetector significantly improved within a broad wavelength range of 300–700 nm. The maximum EQE of 25300% occurs at the wavelength of 350 nm in the methanol-treated device under −9 V bias, which more than doubles that (11500%) of the device without treatment. In addition, as a result of the methanol treatment, the detectivity of the device improved from 3.72 × 1012 to 7.24 × 1012 Jones at −9 V under 350 nm light illumination. The large improvement is attributed to the fact that the methanol treatment can improve the electrical performance of the PEDOT:PSS by removing the insulator PSS within the film and also result in PC71BM aggregations in the active layer. The latter can enhance the tunneling hole injection by the intensified energy-level bending, which is induced by both the trapped electrons in these aggregations and accumulated ones near Al electrode. As a result, the modification of both the PEDOT:PSS layer and the active layer increases the response current, resulting in the EQE improvement.

Optical Distance Measurement Based on Induced Nonlinear Photoresponse of High-Performance Organic Near-Infrared Photodetectors

Extraction barriers are usually undesired in organic semiconductor devices since they lead to reduced device performance. In this work, we intentionally introduce an extraction barrier for holes, leading to nonlinear photoresponse. The effect is utilized in near-infrared (NIR) organic photodetectors (OPDs) to perform distance measurements, as delineated in the focus-induced photoresponse technique (FIP). The extraction barrier is introduced by inserting an anodic interlayer with deeper highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO), compared to the donor material, into a well-performing OPD. With increasing irradiance, achieved by decreasing the illumination spot area on the OPD, a higher number of holes pile up at the anode, counteracting the built-in field and increasing charge-carrier recombination in the bulk. This intended nonlinear response of the photocurrent to the irradiance allows determining the distance between the OPD and the light source. We demonstrate fully vacuum-deposited organic NIR optical distance photodetectors with a detection area up to 256 mm² and detection wavelengths at 850 and 1060 nm. Such NIR OPDs have a high potential for precise, robust, low-cost, and simple optical distance measurement setups.

Development of low bandgap polymers for red and near-infrared fullerene-free organic photodetectors

Two low bandgap donor polymers, PDTPTT and PCPDTTT, were synthesized and their photodetecting properties were investigated under a 680 nm red LED.

Hybrid image sensor of small molecule organic photodiode on CMOS - Integration and characterization

Organic photodiodes (OPDs) for its interesting optoelectronic properties has the potential to be utilized with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit for imaging, automotive, and security based applications. To achieve such a hybrid device as an image sensor, it is imperative that the quality of the OPD remains high on the CMOS substrate and that it has a well-connected optoelectronic interface with the underneath readout integrated circuit (ROIC) for efficient photogeneration and signal readout. Here, we demonstrate seamless integration of a thermally deposited visible light sensitive small molecule OPD on a standard commercial CMOS substrate using optimized doped PCBM buffer layer. Under a standard power supply voltage of 3 V, this hybrid device shows an excellent photolinearity in the entire bias regime, a high pixel sensitivity of 2 V/Lux.sec, a dynamic range (DR) of 71 dB, and a low dark leakage current density of 1 nA/cm². Moreover, the integrated OPD has a minimum bandwidth of 400 kHz. The photoresponse nonuniformity being only 1.7%, achieved under research lab conditions, strengthens the notion that this fully-CMOS compatible technology has the potential to be applied in high-performance large-scale imaging array.

The recent progress of triboelectric nanogenerator-assisted photodetectors

Since 2012, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has attracted significant interest from researchers in the field of energy conversion due to its unique output characteristics of high voltage, pulse and low current. In addition, recent advancements have demonstrated that photodetection platforms based on TENG exhibit great advantages such as being simple, low-cost, portable, with high sensitivity, high response, etc, and are environment friendly. Here, this article provides a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art photodetectors based on TENG in recent years, and a detailed introduction to the structural design and potential mechanisms. It mainly focuses on self-powered photodetectors (including photodetectors as a load resistance of a TENG and photosensitive materials such as tribo-layer of TENG) and the modulation of photodetectors based on TENG (including utilizing the voltage of TENG as well as triboelectric microplasma). Finally, we put forward some perspectives and outlook, including structure engineering and mechanism guidance, for the future development of simple, high-performance and portable photodetectors based on TENG.

Recent Progress in Organic Photodetectors and their Applications

Organic photodetectors (OPDs) have attracted continuous attention due to their outstanding advantages, such as tunability of detecting wavelength, low-cost manufacturing, compatibility with lightweight and flexible devices, as well as ease of processing. Enormous efforts on performance improvement and application of OPDs have been devoted in the past decades. In this Review, recent advances in device architectures and operation mechanisms of phototransistor, photoconductor, and photodiode based OPDs are reviewed with a focus on the strategies aiming at performance improvement. The application of OPDs in spectrally selective detection, wearable devices, and integrated optoelectronics are also discussed. Furthermore, some future prospects on the research challenges and new opportunities of OPDs are covered.

Acceptor-free photomultiplication-type organic photodetectors

A series of organic photodetectors (OPDs) is prepared with two donor materials as active layers, with the only difference being the weight ratio of the two donors (one polymer and one small molecule). The OPDs work according to a photodiode model with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of less than 10% at -10 V when the weight ratio of the two materials is 1 : 1 (wt/wt). The EQE of an OPD with P3HT:DRCN5T (100 : 2, wt/wt) as the active layer reaches 1400% at -10 V, exhibiting the photomultiplication (PM) phenomenon. The EQE values of PM-type OPDs can be markedly improved along with a bias increase, and the champion EQE reaches 10 600% at -20 V. The small number of small molecules can be used as electron traps due to the different lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) levels of the two donors, and photogenerated electrons can be trapped in the small molecules surrounded by P3HT. The trapped electrons near the Al electrode can induce interfacial band bending for efficient hole tunneling injection from an external circuit. This work provides a new strategy for realizing acceptor-free PM-type OPDs, which may inspire us to further develop organic electronic devices with single type organic semiconducting materials.

Reactive Dedoping of Polymer Semiconductors To Boost Self-Powered Schottky Diode Performances

A facile and strategic junction tuning technology is reported to boost self-powered organic Schottky photodiode (OPD) performances by synergetic contributions of reactive dedoping effects. It is shown that dedoping poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) films with 1-propylamine (PA) solution significantly reduces not only acceptor-defect density but also intrinsic doping level, leading to dramatically enlarged depletion width of metal/polymer Schottky junctions, as confirmed by ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and Mott-Schottky junction analyses. As a result, whole penetration regions of photons corresponding to absorption bands of P3HT can be fully covered by the depletion region of Schottky junctions, even without the assistance of external electric fields. In addition, it is shown that non-solvent exposure effects of PA dedoping further enable lower paracrystalline disorder and, thus, higher charge carrier mobility, by means of grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, field-effect mobility, and space-charge-limited current analyses. As a result of such synergetic advantages of the PA dedoping method, non-power-driven green-selective OPDs were demonstrated with a high specific detectivity exceeding 6 × 10¹² Jones and a low noise-equivalent power of 5.05 × 10^-14 W Hz^-0.5. Together with a fast temporal response of 26.9 μs and a wide linear dynamic range of 201 dB, the possibility of realizing non-power-driven, near-ideal optimization of solution-processed OPDs with a facile dedoping method is demonstrated.

Control of Crystallinity in PbPc:C60 Blend Film and Application for Inverted Near-Infrared Organic Photodetector

Inverted near-infrared (NIR) organic photodetectors (OPDs) are required to combine the OPDs with an n-channel silicon-based integrated circuit. NIR absorption in the 930-960 nm range is important because the intensity of solar irradiation is low in this wavelength regime. Here, we controlled the crystallinity of lead(II) phthalocyanine (PbPc) in a PbPc:C₆₀ blend film to obtain NIR absorption. To form a triclinic phase responsible for NIR light absorption, a substrate was heated during fabrication and C₆₀ was used as a templating layer, as well as an electron extraction layer, for an inverted structure. NIR absorption near 950 nm was enhanced, and the structural properties of the film changed dramatically. The OPD with enhanced NIR absorption exhibited a responsivity of 244 mA/W and an external quantum efficiency of 31.1% at a reverse bias of -3 V and 970 nm. The OPD detectivity also increased to 9.01 × 10¹² and 1.36 × 10¹¹ cm Hz^1/2/W under a zero bias and a reverse bias of -3 V, respectively.

Electronic Level Alignment at an Indium Tin Oxide/PbI2 Interface and Its Applications for Organic Electronic Devices

The electronic level alignment at the indium tin oxide (ITO)/PbI₂ interface is investigated by an ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. An n-type conductivity property is found for PbI₂ as well as a downward shift energy level at the ITO/PbI₂ interface. These indicate that PbI₂ can be used as an anode buffer layer for organic electronic devices. The power conversion efficiency of the organic solar cell based on tetraphenyldibenzoperiflanthene/C₇₀ planar heterojunction is dramatically increased from 1.05 to 3.82%. Meanwhile, the thermally activated delayed fluorescence organic light-emitting diode based on 4,4',4″-tri( N-carbazolyl)triphenylamine-((1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triyl)tris(benzene-3,1-diyl))tris(diphenylphosphine oxide) shows a significantly reduced turn-on voltage and enhanced power efficiency from 6.26 to 18.60 lm/W. The improved performance is attributed to the high hole injection/extraction efficiency at the ITO/PbI₂ interface. Besides, the near-infrared (NIR) absorption of lead phthalocyanine (PbPc)-based NIR organic photodetector (NIR-OPD) is dramatically increased, indicating that the PbI₂ layer can also be used as a template layer for the growth of the triclinic phase of PbPc. As a result, the optimized device shows an external quantum efficiency of 26.7% and a detectivity of 9.96 × 10¹¹ jones at 900 nm, which are among the highest ones reported for organic NIR-OPDs.

An A-D-A'-D-A type small molecule acceptor with a broad absorption spectrum for organic solar cells

Organic molecules with wide absorption spectra exhibit great sunlight harvesting capability and are critically important for solar cell applications. In this manuscript, we develop an A-D-A'-D-A type small molecule acceptor (IID-IC) using isoindigo (IID) as the electron-deficient core unit (A'), thiophene as the electron-rich bridging units (D) and 2-(3-oxo-2,3-dihydroinden-1-ylidene)malononitrile (IC) as the electron-deficient endcapping groups (A). IID-IC shows a wide absorption spectrum with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 190 nm, which is almost twice that of a typical A-D-A type molecule acceptor. The wide absorption spectrum of IID-IC is possibly due to the partially suppressed intramolecular charge transfer effect with the additional electron-deficient core unit. An organic solar cell (OSC) device based on IID-IC exhibits the power conversion efficiency of 2.82% with broad photoresponse from 320 nm to 780 nm.

1,4-Dihydropyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrroles as a Single Component Photoactive Layer: A New Paradigm for Broadband Detection

Single component organic photodetectors capable of broadband light sensing represent a paradigm shift for designing flexible and inexpensive optoelectronic devices. The present study demonstrates the application of a new quadrupolar 1,4-dihydropyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole derivative with spectral sensitivity across 350-830 nm as a potential broadband organic photodetector (OPD) material. The amphoteric redox characteristics evinced from the electrochemical studies are exploited to conceptualize a single component OPD with ITO and Al as active electrodes. The photodiode showed impressive broadband photoresponse to monochromatic light sources of 365, 470, 525, 589, 623, and 830 nm. Current density-voltage (J-V) and transient photoresponse studies showed stable and reproducible performance under continuous on/off modulations. The devices operating in reverse bias at 6 V displayed broad spectral responsivity (R) and very good detectivity (D*) peaking a maximum 0.9 mA W^-1 and 1.9 × 10¹⁰ Jones (at 623 nm and 500 μW cm^-2) with a fast rise and decay times of 75 and 140 ms, respectively. Low dark current densities ranging from 1.8 × 10^-10 Acm^-2 at 1 V to 7.2 × 10^-9 A cm^-2 at 6 V renders an operating range to amplify the photocurrent signal, spectral responsivity, and detectivity. Interestingly, the fabricated OPDs display a self-operational mode which is rarely reported for single component organic systems.

Universal Strategy To Reduce Noise Current for Sensitive Organic Photodetectors

Low noise current is critical for achieving high-detectivity organic photodetectors. Inserting charge-blocking layers is an effective approach to suppress the reverse-biased dark current. However, in solution-processed organic photodetectors, the charge-transport material needs to be dissolved in solvents that do not dissolve the underneath light-absorbing layer, which is not always possible for all kinds of light-absorbing materials developed. Here, we introduce a universal strategy of transfer-printing a conjugated polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), as the electron-blocking layer to realize highly sensitive photodetectors. The transfer-printed P3HT layers substantially and universally reduced the reverse-biased dark current by about 3 orders of magnitude for various photodetectors with different active layers. These photodetectors can detect the light signal as weak as several picowatts per square centimeter, and the device detectivity is over 10¹² Jones. The results suggest that the strategy of transfer-printing P3HT films as the electron-blocking layer is universal and effective for the fabrication of sensitive organic photodetectors.

Photomultiplication type narrowband organic photodetectors working at forward and reverse bias

This study demonstrates photomultiplication type narrowband (FWHM < 30 nm) organic photodetectors that work well at both forward and reverse bias.

Electrode buffer layers producing high performance nonvolatile organic write-once-read-many-times memory devices

CuI and Bphen buffer layers result in decreased switch threshold voltage and an increased ON/OFF ratio of an organic WORM memory device.

Organic Photodiodes: The Future of Full Color Detection and Image Sensing

Major growth in the image sensor market is largely as a result of the expansion of digital imaging into cameras, whether stand-alone or integrated within smart cellular phones or automotive vehicles. Applications in biomedicine, education, environmental monitoring, optical communications, pharmaceutics and machine vision are also driving the development of imaging technologies. Organic photodiodes (OPDs) are now being investigated for existing imaging technologies, as their properties make them interesting candidates for these applications. OPDs offer cheaper processing methods, devices that are light, flexible and compatible with large (or small) areas, and the ability to tune the photophysical and optoelectronic properties - both at a material and device level. Although the concept of OPDs has been around for some time, it is only relatively recently that significant progress has been made, with their performance now reaching the point that they are beginning to rival their inorganic counterparts in a number of performance criteria including the linear dynamic range, detectivity, and color selectivity. This review covers the progress made in the OPD field, describing their development as well as the challenges and opportunities.

Photomultiplication photodetectors with P3HT:fullerene-free material as the active layers exhibiting a broad response

A series of polymer photodetectors (PPDs) are fabricated based on P3HT as an electron donor and fullerene-free material DC-IDT2T as an electron acceptor. The only difference among these PPDs is the P3HT:DC-IDT2T doping weight ratios from 2 : 1 to 150 : 1. The PPDs with P3HT:DC-IDT2T (100 : 1, w/w) as the active layers exhibit champion external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 28 000% and 4000% corresponding to 390 nm and 750 nm light illumination at -20 V bias, respectively. The photomultiplication (PM) phenomenon should be attributed to the enhanced hole tunneling injection due to the interfacial band bending, which is induced by the trapped electrons in DC-IDT2T near the Al cathode. The high EQE value in the long wavelength range is due to the effect of DC-IDT2T photon harvesting and exciton dissociation on the interfacial trap-assisted hole tunneling injection. Meanwhile, the PPDs with DC-IDT2T as the electron acceptor exhibit superior stability compared with the PPDs with PC71BM as the electron acceptor.

Rational tuning of high-energy visible light absorption for panchromatic small molecules by a two-dimensional conjugation approach

We have demonstrated a rational two-dimensional (2D) conjugation approach towards achieving panchromatic absorption of small molecules. By extending the conjugation on two orthogonal axes of an electron acceptor, namely, bay-annulated indigo (BAI), the optical absorptions could be tuned independently in both high- and low-energy regions. The unconventional modulation of the high-energy absorption is rationalized by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Such a 2D tuning strategy provides novel guidelines for the design of molecular materials with tailored optoelectronic properties.

Synthesis and characterization of 2,2′-bithiophene end-capped dihexyloxy phenylene pentamer and its application in a solution-processed organic ultraviolet photodetector

A new solution processable small organic material, 2,2′-bithiophene end-capped dihexyloxy phenylene (BHBT2) was synthesized and applied in organic UV photodetector, resulting the device exhibited fast, reversible and stable response upon detection.

Improved Performance of Photomultiplication Polymer Photodetectors by Adjustment of P3HT Molecular Arrangement

A series of photomultiplication (PM)-type polymer photodetectors (PPDs) were fabricated with polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene)-[6,6]-phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (P3HT-PC71BM) (100:1, w/w) as the active layers, the only difference being the self-assembly time of the active layers for adjusting the P3HT molecular arrangement. The grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) results exhibit that P3HT molecular arrangement can be adjusted between face-on and edge-on structures by controlling the self-assembly time. The champion EQE value of PPDs, based on the active layers without the self-assembly process, arrives at 6380% under 610 nm light illumination at -10 V bias, corresponding to the face-on molecular arrangement of P3HT in the active layers. The EQE values of PPDs were markedly decreased to 1600%, along with the self-assembly time up to 12 min, which should be attributed to the variation of absorption and hole transport ability of the active layers induced by the change of P3HT molecular arrangement. This finding provides an effective strategy for improving the performance of PM-type PPDs by adjusting the molecular arrangement, in addition to the enhanced trap-assisted charge-carrier tunneling injection.

Revealing the working mechanism of polymer photodetectors with ultra-high external quantum efficiency

Only the trapped electrons in PC₇₁BM near the Al electrode are beneficial to hole tunneling injection from the Al electrode.