Energy-Level Manipulation in Novel Indacenodithiophene-Based Donor-Acceptor Polymers for Near-Infrared Organic Photodetectors.
Organic photodetectors (OPDs) are promising candidates for next-generation digital imaging and wearable sensors due to their low cost, tuneable optoelectrical properties combined with high-level performance, and solution-processed fabrication techniques. However, OPD detection is often limited to shorter wavelengths, whereas photodetection in the near-infrared (NIR) region is increasingly being required for wearable electronics and medical device applications. NIR sensing suffers from low responsivity and high dark currents. A common approach to enhance NIR photon detection is lowering the optical band gap via donor-acceptor (D-A) molecular engineering. Herein, we present the synthesis of two novel indacenodithiophene (IDT)-based D-A conjugated polymers, namely, PDPPy-IT and PSNT-IT via palladium-catalyzed Stille coupling reactions. These novel polymers exhibit optical band gaps of 1.81 and 1.27 eV for PDPPy-IT and PSNT-IT, respectively, with highly desirable visible and NIR light detection through energy-level manipulation. Moreover, excellent materials' solubility and thin-film processability allow easy incorporation of these polymers as an active layer into OPDs for light detection. In the case of PSNT-IT devices, a photodetection up to 1000 nm is demonstrated with a peak sensitivity centered at 875 nm, whereas PDPPy-IT devices are efficient in detecting the visible spectrum with the highest sensitivity at 660 nm. Overall, both OPDs exhibit spectral responsivities up to 0.11 A W-1 and dark currents in the nA cm-2 range. With linear dynamic ranges exceeding 140 dB and fast response times recorded below 100 μs, the use of novel IDT-based polymers in OPDs shows great potential for wearable optoelectronics.
['Bhat|Gurudutt|G|', 'Liu|Qian|Q|', 'Kielar|Marcin|M|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9802-1234', 'Hamada|Yuya|Y|', 'Michinobu|Tsuyoshi|T|https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6948-1189', 'Sah|Pankaj|P|', 'Ko Kyaw|Aung Ko|AK|https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2399-9788', 'Pandey|Ajay K|AK|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6599-745X', 'Sonar|Prashant|P|https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1119-4897']
organic photodetectors indacenodithiophene low band gap polymer near-infrared absorption near-infrared photodetectors