Construction of Laterally Asymmetric Heterojunctions with Sub ‐Micrometer Resolution by Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Polythiophene Nanofibers

A planar heterojunction device is fabricated with one of the laterally arranged electrodes modified by poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanofibers. The modification is performed with an unprecedented precision better than 100  nm. The cathode-to-anode distance can be adjusted from ≈0.1 to 1–2 µm. An interesting phenomenon of electrodic-distance-dependent photovoltaic efficiency is observed for the first time in such a device configuration. AbstractPolymeric semiconductors are crucial candidates for the construction of next-generation flexible and printable electronic devices. By virtue of the successful preparation of monodispersed colloidal solution in orthogonal solvent, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanofibers are developed into versatile building blocks for nanoelectronics and their compatibilities are verified with photolithographic lift-off technology. Then, the joint efforts from both the bottom-up hierarchical self-assembly and top-down self-alignment technology have led to the realization of lateral asymmetric heterojunctions with resolution better than 1  µm. As a result, planar photovoltaic devices incorporatingN,N ʹ-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide and P3HT supramolecular nanowires as active components are constructed with the cathode-to-anode distance being tuned from ≈0.1 to 1–2 µm. Based on such a novel device configuration, an interesting phenomenon of channel-length-dependent photovoltaic efficiency is observed for the first time, strongly suggest...

Source: Small - January 7, 2022 Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Hongxian Zheng, Wenbin Li, Yurong Chen, Baichuan Jiang, Yu Che, Cailing Ou, Jun Li, Xiao Han, Chuanhui Liu, Lei Zhang Tags: Research Article Source Type: research