Thermal and Optical Modulation of the Carrier Mobility in OTFTs Based on an Azo-anthracene Liquid Crystal Organic Semiconductor.
One of the most striking features of organic semiconductors compared with their corresponding inorganic counterparts is their molecular diversity. The major challenge in organic semiconductor material technology is creating molecular structural motifs to develop multifunctional materials in order to achieve the desired functionalities yet to optimize the specific device performance. Azo-compounds, because of their special photoresponsive property, have attracted extensive interest in photonic and optoelectronic applications; if incorporated wisely in the organic semiconductor groups, they can be innovatively utilized in advanced smart electronic applications, where thermal and photo modulation is applied to tune the electronic properties. On the basis of this aspiration, a novel azo-functionalized liquid crystal semiconductor material, (E)-1-(4-(anthracen-2-yl)phenyl)-2-(4-(decyloxy)phenyl)diazene (APDPD), is designed and synthesized for application in organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). The UV-vis spectra of APDPD exhibit reversible photoisomerizaton upon photoexcitation, and the thin films of APDPD show a long-range orientational order based on its liquid crystal phase. The performance of OTFTs based on this material as well as the effects of thermal treatment and UV-irradiation on mobility are investigated. The molecular structure, stability of the material, and morphology of the thin films are characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), polarizing optical microscopy (POM), (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), UV-vis spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). This study reveals that our new material has the potential to be applied in optical sensors, memories, logic circuits, and functional switches.
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Yantong
Y
Chen
Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Department of Electronics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
Chao
C
Li
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Xiuru
X
Xu
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Ming
M
Liu
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Yaowu
Y
He
Key Laboratory for Flexible Electronics (KLOFE) & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing Tech University (Nanjing Tech) , 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing 211816, China.|Department of Physics, International Islamic University , Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
Imran
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5322-8656
I
Murtaza
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Dongwei
D
Zhang
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.
Chao
C
Yao
Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Department of Electronics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
Yongfeng
Y
Wang
School of Advanced Materials, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School , Shenzhen 518055, China.|Key Laboratory for Flexible Electronics (KLOFE) & Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM), Nanjing Tech University (Nanjing Tech) , 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing 211816, China.
Hong
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5877-359X
H
Meng
anthracene; azo-compound; liquid crystal; organic thin-film transistors; photoresponsive