Realizing Broadband NIR Photodetection and Ultrahigh Responsivity with Ternary Blend Organic Photodetector

Highly Efficient and Stable ITO-Free Organic Solar Cells Based on Squaraine N-Doped Quaternary Bulk Heterojunction

Simultaneously achieving high efficiency and robust device stability remains a significant challenge for organic solar cells (OSCs). Solving this challenge is highly dependent on the film morphology of the bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photoactive blends; however, there is a lack of rational control strategy. Herein, it is shown that the molecular crystallinity and nanomorphology of nonfullerene-based BHJ can be effectively controlled by a squaraine-based doping strategy, leading to an increase in device efficiency from 17.26% to 18.5% when doping 2 wt% squaraine into the PBDB-TF:BTP-eC9:PC71 BM ternary BHJ. The efficiency is further improved to 19.11% (certified 19.06%) using an indium-tin-oxide-free column-patterned microcavity (CPM) architecture. Combined with interfacial modification, CPM quaternary OSC excitingly shows an extrapolated lifetime of ≈23 years based on accelerated aging test, with the mechanism behind enhanced stability well studied. Furthermore, a flexible OSC module with a high and stable efficiency of 15.2% and an overall area of 5 cm2 is successfully fabricated, exhibiting a high average output power for wearable electronics. This work demonstrates that OSCs with new design of BHJ and device architecture are highly promising to be practical relevance with excellent performance and stability.

High Detectivity Near Infrared Organic Photodetectors Using an Asymmetric Non-Fullerene Acceptor for Optimal Nanomorphology and Suppressed Dark Current

Recently, the development of non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) for near-infrared (NIR) organic photodetectors (OPDs) has attracted great interest due to their excellent NIR light absorption properties. Herein, we developed NFAs by substituting an electron-donating moiety (branched alkoxy thiophene (BAT)) asymmetrically (YOR1) and symmetrically (YOR2) for the Y6 framework. YOR1 exhibited nanoscale phase separation in a film blended with PTB7-Th. Moreover, substituting the BAT unit effectively extended the absorption wavelengths of YOR1 over 1000 nm by efficient intramolecular charge transfer and extension of the conjugation length. Consequently, YOR1-OPD exhibited significantly reduced dark current and improved responsivity by simultaneously satisfying optimal nanomorphology and significant suppression of charge recombination, resulting in 1.98 × 1013 and 3.38 × 1012 Jones specific detectivity at 950 and 1000 nm, respectively. Moreover, we successfully demonstrated the application of YOR1-OPD in highly sensitive photoplethysmography sensors using NIR light. This study suggests a strategic approach for boosting the overall performance of NIR OPDs targeting a 1000 nm light signal using an all-in-one (optimal morphology, suppressed dark current, and extended NIR absorption wavelength) NFA.

Portable NIR spectroscopy: the route to green analytical chemistry

There is a growing interest for cost-effective and nondestructive analytical techniques in both research and application fields. The growing approach by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRs) pushes to develop handheld devices devoted to be easily applied for in situ determinations. Consequently, portable NIR spectrometers actually result definitively recognized as powerful instruments, able to perform nondestructive, online, or in situ analyses, and useful tools characterized by increasingly smaller size, lower cost, higher robustness, easy-to-use by operator, portable and with ergonomic profile. Chemometrics play a fundamental role to obtain useful and meaningful results from NIR spectra. In this review, portable NIRs applications, published in the period 2019-2022, have been selected to indicate starting references. These publications have been chosen among the many examples of the most recent applications to demonstrate the potential of this analytical approach which, not having the need for extraction processes or any other pre-treatment of the sample under examination, can be considered the "true green analytical chemistry" which allows the analysis where the sample to be characterized is located. In the case of industrial processes or plant or animal samples, it is even possible to follow the variation or evolution of fundamental parameters over time. Publications of specific applications in this field continuously appear in the literature, often in unfamiliar journal or in dedicated special issues. This review aims to give starting references, sometimes not easy to be found.

Overcoming the Fermi-Level Pinning Effect in the Nanoscale Metal and Silicon Interface

Silicon-based photodetectors are attractive as low-cost and environmentally friendly optical sensors. Also, their compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology is advantageous for the development of silicon photonics systems. However, extending optical responsivity of silicon-based photodetectors to the mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelength range remains challenging. In developing mid-IR infrared Schottky detectors, nanoscale metals are critical. Nonetheless, one key factor is the Fermi-level pinning effect at the metal/silicon interface and the presence of metal-induced gap states (MIGS). Here, we demonstrate the utilization of the passivated surface layer on semiconductor materials as an insulating material in metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) contacts to mitigate the Fermi-level pinning effect. The removal of Fermi-level pinning effectively reduces the Schottky barrier height by 12.5% to 16%. The demonstrated devices exhibit a high responsivity of up to 234 μA/W at a wavelength of 2 μm, 48.2 μA/W at 3 μm, and 1.75 μA/W at 6 μm. The corresponding detectivities at 2 and 3 μm are 1.17 × 108 cm Hz1/2 W-1 and 2.41 × 107 cm Hz1/2 W-1, respectively. The expanded sensing wavelength range contributes to the application development of future silicon photonics integration platforms.

Narrowband Near-Infrared Perovskite/Organic Photodetector: TCAD Numerical Simulation

Narrowband photodetectors (PD) established in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range are highly required in a variety of applications including high-quality bioimaging. In this simulation study, we propose a filter-less narrowband PD based on the architecture of perovskite/organic heterojunction. The most decisive part of the photodetector is the hierarchical configuration of a larger bandgap perovskite material with a thicker film followed by a lower bandgap organic material with a narrower layer. The design of the structure is carried out by TCAD numerical simulations. Our structure is based on an experimentally validated wideband organic PD, which is modified by invoking an additional perovskite layer having a tunable bandgap. The main detector device comprises of ITO/perovskite (CsyFA1−yPb(IxBr1−x)3)/organic blend (PBDTTT-c:C60-PCBM)/PEDOT:PSS/Al. The simulation results show that the proposed heterojunction PD achieves satisfactory performance when the thickness of perovskite and organic layers are 2.5 µm and 500 nm, respectively. The designed photodetector achieves a narrow spectral response at 730 nm with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 33 nm in the detector, while having a responsivity of about 0.12 A/W at zero bias. The presented heterojunction perovskite/organic PD can efficiently detect light in the wavelength range of 700 to 900 nm. These simulation results can be employed to drive the development of filter-less narrowband NIR heterojunction PD.