Jens Pflaum

Ultralow-power organic complementary circuits

The prospect of using low-temperature processable organic semiconductors to implement transistors, circuits, displays and sensors on arbitrary substrates, such as glass or plastics, offers enormous potential for a wide range of electronic products. Of particular interest are portable devices that can be powered by small batteries or by near-field radio-frequency coupling. The main problem with existing approaches is the large power consumption of conventional organic circuits, which makes battery-powered applications problematic, if not impossible. Here we demonstrate an organic circuit with very low power consumption that uses a self-assembled monolayer gate dielectric and two different air-stable molecular semiconductors (pentacene and hexadecafluorocopperphthalocyanine, F16CuPc). The monolayer dielectric is grown on patterned metal gates at room temperature and is optimized to provide a large gate capacitance and low gate leakage currents. By combining low-voltage p-channel and n-channel organic thin-film transistors in a complementary circuit design, the static currents are reduced to below 100 pA per logic gate. We have fabricated complementary inverters, NAND gates, and ring oscillators that operate with supply voltages between 1.5 and 3 V and have a static power consumption of less than 1 nW per logic gate. These organic circuits are thus well suited for battery-powered systems such as portable display devices and large-surface sensor networks as well as for radio-frequency identification tags with extended operating range.

Space charge limited transport and time of flight measurements in tetracene single crystals: A comparative study

We report on a systematic study of electronic transport in tetracene single crystals by means of space charge limited current spectroscopy and time of flight measurements. Both I–V and time of flight measurements show that the room-temperature effective hole mobility reaches values close to μ≃1 cm2/V s and that, within a range of temperatures, the mobility increases with decreasing temperature. The experimental results further allow the characterization of different aspects of the tetracene crystals. In particular, the effects of both deep and shallow traps are clearly visible and can be used to estimate their densities and characteristic energies. The results presented in this article show that the combination of I–V measurements and time of flight spectroscopy is very effective in characterizing several different aspects of electronic transport through organic crystals.

Exciton diffusion length in the organic semiconductor diindenoperylene

The photovoltaic behavior of Schottky barrier devices consisting of a single diindenoperylene (DIP) layer sandwiched between an indium tin oxide and Ag electrode has been investigated. Correlating the spectral dependence of the photocurrent and the absorption coefficient, we estimated the exciton diffusion length in DIP to ∼100nm along the c′ direction. X-ray structural analysis yielded this length to be in agreement with the average crystallite size, thereby, revealing domain boundaries to be the limiting effect on the exciton transport. The corresponding exciton diffusion constant of 5×10−3cm2∕s resembles that of highly ordered single crystals of polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

Gilbert damping and g-factor in FexCo1−x alloy films

Abstract The Gilbert damping parameter, G, determined from ferromagnetic resonance (9 – 92 GHz), is presented as a function of concentration, x, for single crystalline FexCo1−x alloy films prepared by rf sputtering. On the Fe-rich side, a plateau-like behavior is found for G(x), extending to about x = 0.5. In addition, the g-factor, g, is shown to exhibit a very similar dependence, in agreement with theoretical calculations which relate these two quantities via the spin-orbit coupling. It is seen that the compositional dependence of both G(x) and g(x) cannot be described by a simple interpolation between the values for the pure elements.

Identification of different origins for s-shaped current voltage characteristics in planar heterojunction organic solar cells

We investigate different parameters influencing the occurrence of s-shaped current voltage (j-V) characteristics in planar heterojunction organic solar cells. It is shown how substrate modification, purity of the active organic material as well as variation of the top contact can affect the shape of the j-V curves. The studies are performed on vacuum-evaporated planar heterojunction solar cells with diindenoperylene (DIP) as electron donor and fullerene C60 as acceptor. The focus is on the fill factor and forward current being the most direct indicators for s-shapes in j-V curves. We find that the main effect of substrate heating during film growth can be assigned to changes in energy barriers rather than to the modification of morphology and crystallinity, which is also influenced by elevated substrate temperatures. The decisive role of the barrier height between the anode work function and the HOMO (i.e., highest occupied molecular orbital) level of the donor is approved by comparing hole-injection laye...

Kramers-Kronig-consistent optical functions of anisotropic crystals: generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry on pentacene

The Kramers-Kronig relations between the real and imaginary parts of a response function are widely used in solid-state physics to evaluate the corresponding quantity if only one component is measured. They are among the most fundamental statements since only based on the analytical behavior and causal nature of the material response [Phys. Rev. 104, 1760-1770 (1956)]. Optical losses, for instance, can be obtained from the dispersion of the dielectric constant at all wavelengths, and vice versa [Handbook of optical constants of solids, Vol. 1, p. 35]. Although the general validity was never casted into doubt, it is a longstanding problem that Kramers-Kronig relations cannot simply be applied to anisotropic crystalline materials because contributions from different directions mix in a frequency-dependent way. Here we present a general method to identify frequency-independent principal polarizability directions for which the Kramers-Kronig relations are obeyed even in materials with lowest symmetry. Using generalized spectroscopic ellipsometry on a single crystal surface of triclinic pentacene, as an example, enables us to evaluate the complex dielectric constant and to compare it with band-structure calculations along the crystallographic directions. A general recipe is provided how to proceed from a macroscopic measurement on a low symmetry crystal plane to the microscopic dielectric properties of the unit cell, along whose axes the Kramers-Kronig relations hold.

Single-crystal field-effect transistors of new Cl 2 -NDI polymorph processed by sublimation in air

Physical properties of active materials built up from small molecules are dictated by their molecular packing in the solid state. Here we demonstrate for the first time the growth of n-channel single-crystal field-effect transistors and organic thin-film transistors by sublimation of 2,6-dichloro-naphthalene diimide in air. Under these conditions, a new polymorph with two-dimensional brick-wall packing mode (β-phase) is obtained that is distinguished from the previously reported herringbone packing motif obtained from solution (α-phase). We are able to fabricate single-crystal field-effect transistors with electron mobilities in air of up to 8.6 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) (α-phase) and up to 3.5 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) (β-phase) on n-octadecyltriethoxysilane-modified substrates. On silicon dioxide, thin-film devices based on β-phase can be manufactured in air giving rise to electron mobilities of 0.37 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1). The simple crystal and thin-film growth procedures by sublimation under ambient conditions avoid elaborate substrate modifications and costly vacuum equipment-based fabrication steps.

Fluorescence of laser-created electron-hole plasma in graphene

We present an experimental observation of nonlinear up- and down-converted optical luminescence of graphene and thin graphite subject to picosecond infrared laser pulses. We show that the excitation yields to a high-density electron-hole plasma in graphene. It is further shown that the excited charge carriers can efficiently exchange energy due to scattering in momentum space. The recombination of the resulting nonequilibrium electron-hole pairs yields to the observed white-light luminescence. Due to the scattering mechanism, the power dependence of the luminescence is quadratic until it saturates for higher laser power. Studying the luminescence intensity as a function of layer thickness gives further insight into its nature and provides a new tool for substrate independent thickness determination of multilayer flakes.

Tunable Two-Dimensional Binary Molecular Networks

A novel approach to constructing tunable and robust 2D binary molecular nanostructures on an inert graphite surface is presented. The guest molecules are embedded into a host molecular matrix and constrained via the formation of multiple intermolecular hydrogen bonds. By varying the binary molecular ratio and the molecular geometry, various molecular arrays with tunable intermolecular distances are fabricated. The results suggest a promising route for the fabrication of ordered and stable molecular nanostructure arrays for molecular sensors, molecular spintronic devices, and molecular p-n nanojunctions.

Structure and electronic properties of CH3- and CF3-terminated alkanethiol monolayers on Au(111): a scanning tunneling microscopy, surface X-ray and helium scattering study

The structure and the electronic properties of a series of CH3- and CF3-terminated alkanethiol monolayers on Au(1 1 1) have been studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and surface X-ray and helium scattering. At full coverage, the CH3-terminated monolayers form long-range ordered domains of a ð p 3 � p 3ÞR30 and a ð2 p 3 � 3ÞR30 standing-up phase. By thermal desorption, distinct lying-down phases of intermediate density as well as the ðpp 3Þ lying-down phase were generated. In contrast, the CF3-terminated monolayers at full coverage form a standing-up phase of hexagonal symmetry that exhibits no long-range order at room temperature. Even after annealing, the domain sizes are smaller by more than one order of magnitude compared to the CH3-terminated thiol monolayers. A com- parison of the low-density lying-down phases suggests no measurable influence of the CF3-group on the ordering. The current-voltage dependence (I-V -curves) measured by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) shows no voltage gap for CH3-terminated decanethiols. In contrast, in the I-V -curves for CF3-terminated decanethiol monolayers, an asym- metric voltage gap of about 2 V can be clearly observed. The latter results are discussed in terms of a microscopic model that includes the formation of an interfacial Coulomb barrier at the CF3/vacuum boundary. In addition, the effects of the tunneling conditions on the STM image contrast were examined. These studies demonstrate that the nature of the STM images and thus, the respective apparent lateral order of the films, strongly depends on the choice of the tunneling parameters. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.