Crystal Chemistry, Molecular Order and Charge Transport at Organic Semiconductor Interfaces

ChEMS Seminar

Prof. Alejandro L. Briseno

Department of Polymer Science and Engineering

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Abstract:

The exploration and understanding of the crystallization, growth and the orientation of organic molecules on substrates is a very important feature in fundamental as well as applied research in the various fields of organic electronic device research. It is well known that the ordering and orientation of organic molecules significantly affects the electronic structure and transport properties, and the anisotropy of the transport properties in organic semiconductor thin films in particular has to be taken into account. It is, however, not only the orientation of the film as a whole that is important, but the molecular orientation in the few layers near an interface to other device layers that may affect the electronic properties, such as the electronic trap states, contact resistances or interface dipoles.

In this lecture, I will discuss our efforts in investigating charge and photogenerated transport at organic nanocrystalline interfaces. For example, we have synthesized single-crystalline donor-acceptor nanowire devices (i.e. transistors, solar-cells) that have enabled us to demonstrate excitonic charge splitting and ambipolar charge transport at p-n nanointerfaces. The use of organic single-crystalline devices will have a major impact in accelerating the emerging area of organic electronics, as these highly ordered systems will enable one to extract intrinsic charge carrier transport phenomena that cannot be accurately determined from disordered systems common to amorphous and/or polycrystalline films used in mainstream devices.

Bio:

Alejandro Briseno received his B.S from California State University, Los Angeles. In 2006, he completed his Master's Degree in chemistry at UCLA. His Ph.D research on organic semiconductor solids was supported by a Bell Labs-Lucent Technologies Fellowship under the supervision of Professors Younan Xia and Sam Jenekhe at the University of Washington. In 2009, he joined the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where his research is centered on the synthesis of organic and polymer semiconductors, interfacial crystallization, and fundamental charge transport in organic electronic devices.