Organic Semiconductors: A New Future of Nanodevices and Applications

Abstract

Organic materials with attractive electronic and optoelectronic properties are in high demand for functional electro-optical device applications. Research on synthetic polymer and organic small molecules has gained a great deal of attention due to their potential applications in low cost, ultra-thin, and flexible products and are expected to have a revolutionary role in modern day life. Basically, organic semiconductors are imperative for a range of optoelectronic applications including organic photovoltaic devices, light-emitting diodes, organic light-emitting transistor and organic field effect transistor-driven photonics since they possess photoluminescence, electroluminescence, and nonlinear optical properties in addition to liquid crystalline, structural patterning, printing and solution casting abilities. Electronic devices based on organic materials can be fabricated by simple processing techniques and are under intense investigation in academic and industrial laboratories because of their potential for mass production of flexible and cost-effective devices models. Organic devices also possess light-weight and transparent advantages compared to silicon-based devices. Significant progress has been achieved in the development of novel materials and new device engineering in the last decade. In this regard, arylene diimide families have shown high promise as useful building blocks for the fabrication of next-generation electronic and optoelectronics devices, providing deeper insight into their transistor characteristics at the molecular scale to practical applications ranging from medicine to high end security systems. These organic compounds are being developed for improved resistance to thermal and environmental stresses, which is one of the major challenges in the field. Several other classes of compounds based on fullerene (C₆₀) and chemically modified thiophenes are also being explored and developed for use in a plethora of devices encompassing interdisciplinary research areas. These devices, owing to their low-cost, ease of synthesis and processing, are expected to pave the way for next-generation electronics with energy-efficient security systems, sensors, photonics, and spintronic memories. In this chapter we present a brief review on the different types of organic devices, their fabrication processes, and recent applications by citing examples of oligomers and polymers.