Spectrally selective organic photodiodes

We report on the fabrication of spectrally selective organic photodiodes (OPDs) and present a green sensitive OPD, whose spectral response peaks in the green region between 470 nm and 560 nm, as well as a red sensitive OPD whose spectral response peaks in the red region between 610 nm to 720 nm. We show that the spectral sensitivity of OPDs can be tuned by either choosing organic semiconductors with the appropriate photoresponse or by utilizing adequate device architectures with integrated optical filters. The results demonstrate the great flexibility of organic semiconductor materials. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Inverse relation between photocurrent and absorption layer thickness in polymer solar cells

Organic solar cells based on polymer–fullerene bulk heterojunctions were optimised with respect to the short circuit photocurrent by means of optical modelling. Due to interference effects present in the thin film multilayer device, an inverse relation between active layer thickness and photocurrent was predicted and experimentally verified. Optimised photovoltaic devices yield power conversion efficiencies of 4%. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Quasi-persistent photocurrent in the UV-irradiated MEH-PPV conjugated polymer

We report the quasi-persistent photocurrent in the MEH-PPV conjugated polymer, induced by UV-irradiation in air. It is attributed to the irradiation-induced defects, which also act to accelerate its decay.     

Thermo-optical investigation of clamped ferroelectric polymer films

Attenuated total reflection leaky-mode spectroscopy is used for a thermo-optical investigation of a clamped film of the ferroelectric vinylidene fluoridetrifluoroethylene copolymer. A hysteresis loop for the optical parameters refractive index and film thickness is found for a full temperature cycle between 25° C and 60° C. In the vicinity of the ferroelectric/paraelectric phase transition increased optical losses are found.     

Growth Mechanism and Optimized Parameters to Synthesize Nafion-115 Nanowire Arrays with Anodic Aluminium Oxide Membranes as Templates

Nation-115 nanowire arrays are synthesized with an extrusion method using AAO membranes as templates. It is indicated that the vacuum treating of AAO templates before surface decoration plays an important role in obtaining high filling rate of the Nation-115 nanowires in the AAO templates, vchile the concentration of Nafion-115 DMSO solutions does not affect the flling rate greatly. The optimized parameters to synthesize the Nation-115 nanowire arrays are studied. The filling rate of the Nadion-115 nanowires in the AAO templates synthesized with the optimized parameters is about 95% discussed to qualitatively explain the experimental results The growth mechanism of Nafion-115 nanowires is     

Influence of metal organic and inorganic precursors on spray pyrolyzed ceramic MgO (2 0 0) thin films for epitaxial over layers

The MgO (2 0 0) surface is widely used as a substrate for epitaxial growth of superconducting and ferro-electric films. Highly oriented, single crystalline, extremely flat and transparent MgO films have been successfully deposited on quartz substrates by the chemical spray pyrolysis technique using economically viable metal organic and inorganic precursors under optimized conditions at the substrate temperature of 600 °C. Thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) in the temperature range 30-600 °C with the heating rate of 10 °C/min revealed the decomposition behavior of the precursors and confirmed the suitable substrate temperature range for film processing. The heat of reaction, ΔH due to decomposition of metal organic precursor contributed additional heat energy to the substrate for better crystallization. The intensity of the (2 0 0) peak in X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements and the smooth surface profiles revealed the dependency of precursor on film formation. The compositional purity and the metal-oxide bond formation were tested for all the films. UV-Vis-NIR optical absorption in the 200-1500 nm range revealed an optical transmittance above 80% and the absorption edge at about 238 nm corresponding to an optical band gap E_g = 5.25 eV. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) micrographs of MgO films confirmed better crystallinity with larger grain size (0.85 μm) and reduced surface roughness (26 nm), respectively.     

Polymer heterostructures with embedded carbon nanotubes for efficient photovoltaic cells

Polymer photovoltaic cells (PVC) are intensely investigated because of their potential advantages over Si-based PVCs. Their present drawbacks are low conversion efficiency, limited exciton diffusion length, poor hole carriers transport and short lifetime. The highest conversion efficiency achieved so far in spin-coated polymer blends is close to 5%. Recently, efficiency growing has been demonstrated in multilayer architectures involving a donor/acceptor bulk heterojunction. Alternatively, a nanomaterial has been added to the polymer active layer to facilitate excitons dissociation and carriers transport through the polymer matrix. In this work we investigate both these approaches, first embedding single wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWCNT) in the polymeric matrix to improve the electrical transport and second studying the optical absorption of different polymer thin films to optimize the spectral response of the donor/acceptor heterojunction.     

Electrical and optical characterization of thrombin-induced permeability of cultured endothelial cell monolayers on semiconductor electrode arrays

Impedance spectroscopy and phase-contrast microscopy are combined to monitor the electrical and morphological properties of human umbilical vein endothelial cell monolayers. The cells were cultured on optically transparent indium-tin-oxide (ITO) semiconductor electrode arrays coated with collagen IV, and the effect of the inflammatory mediator thrombin on monolayer permeability was monitored in real time. ITO electrodes provide several advantages for these kinds of experiments, because they are optically transparent, polarizable and highly sensitive due to the absence of insulating oxide layers. A qualitative correlation between the thrombin-induced gap formation and the electrical parameters of the cell layer is established. Received: 8 August 2000 / Accepted: 2 March 2001 / Published online: 20 June 2001     

Organic electroluminescence channel avoiding triplet excitons

Polarons and bipolarons are main carriers in conducting polymers. It is shown that a bipolaron can open a channel of electroluminescence, which does not involve a triplet exciton, and can enhance the efficiency of electroluminescence. The dynamics of this channel is simulated.     

Visible photoluminescence from hydrogenated amorphous carbon films prepared by pulsed laser ablation of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)

Visible photoluminescence (PL) has been observed from the hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) films prepared by ArF pulsed laser ablation of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in the presence of hydrogen gas (H₂). With increasing hydrogen concentration the PL intensity increases and the intensity maximum blue-shifted. The PL intensity also increases after hours of light illumination, exhibiting a light soaking enhancement. Increasing the deposition temperature decreases the PL and increases the ratio of sp³/sp² bonds.Z.F. Li is on leave from Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, P.R. China.