Band gap engineering in blended organic semiconductor films based on dielectric interactions

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Blending organic molecules to tune their energy levels is currently being investigated as an approach to engineer the bulk and interfacial optoelectronic properties of organic semiconductors. It has been proven that the ionization energy and electron affinity can be equally shifted in the same direction by electrostatic effects controlled by blending similar halogenated derivatives with different energetics. Here we show that the energy gap of organic semiconductors can also be tuned by blending. We use oligothiophenes with different numbers of thiophene rings as an example and investigate their structure and electronic properties. Photoelectron spectroscopy and inverse photoelectron spectroscopy show tunability of the single-particle gap, with the optical gaps showing similar, but smaller, effects. Theoretical analysis shows that this tuning is mainly caused by a change in the dielectric constant with blend ratio. Further studies will explore the practical impact of this energy-level engineering strategy for optoelectronic devices.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages7
JournalNature materials
Volume2021
Issue number20
Publication statusPublished - 10 Oct 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85107472477
ORCID /0000-0002-9773-6676/work/142247004
ORCID /0000-0002-8487-0972/work/142247504

Keywords