WFU Physics Colloquium

Electronic components based on organic semiconductors benefit from the processability of the organic material from either a solution or melt. This broadens the range of substrates on which the semiconductor is deposited since, unlike inorganics, the fabrication can be done at ambient temperature and pressure. However, due to the weak intermolecular van der Waal interactions that characterize these materials, the film crystallization responds strongly to the details of processing, and thus the layers often suffer from increased disorder and energetic trapping states that lowers device performance. We have developed two novel methods of organic semiconductor deposition that improve the control over the layer growth while maintaining low-cost processing. The first method, Vibration-Assisted Crystallization (VAC) minimizes the configuration energy of solution deposited films, thereby improving performance of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Second, we have demonstrated the first ever laser printed semiconductor layer in a working OFET by using a standard office laser printer.