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Curved X‐ray detectors have the potential to revolutionize diverse sectors due to benefits such as reduced image distortion and vignetting compared to their planar counterparts. While the use of inorganic semiconductors for curved detectors are restricted by their brittle nature, organic–inorganic hybrid semiconductors which incorporated bismuth oxide nanoparticles in an organic bulk heterojunction consisting of poly(3‐hexylthiophene‐2,5‐diyl) (P3HT) and [6,6]‐phenyl C71 butyric acid methyl ester (PC70BM) are considered to be more promising in this regard. However, the influence of the P3HT molecular weight on the mechanical stability of curved, thick X‐ray detectors remains less well understood. Herein, high P3HT molecular weights (>40 kDa) are identified to allow increased intermolecular bonding and chain entanglements, resulting in X‐ray detectors that can be curved to a radius as low as 1.3 mm with low deviation in X‐ray response under 100 repeated bending cycles while maintaining an industry‐standard dark current of, Solution processable organic–inorganic hybrid semiconductors for flexible curved X‐ray detector components have the potential to revolutionize diverse sectors in terms of its cost and performance. This work introduces a strategy for realizing the optimum balance for detector performance at low operating voltages with mechanical flexibility by tuning the organic semiconductor molecular weight for such curved hybrid detectors.

A new printable organic semiconducting material combination as a tissue equivalent photodetector for indirect X-ray detection is demonstrated in this work. The device exhibits a higher optical-to-electrical conversion efficiency than any other reported printable organic systems for X-ray photodetection while also operating efficiently with zero applied bias. Complete X-ray detectors fabricated by coupling the photodiode with a plastic scintillator are among the first flexible and fully tissue equivalent X-ray detectors capable of operating without external bias. The response to X-rays is energy independent between 50 keV and 1.2 MeV, with a detection sensitivity equivalent to inorganic direct X-ray detectors and one of the fastest temporal responses ever reported for organic X-ray detectors. The materials can be printed into arrays with a pixel pitch of 120 μm, providing 2D spatial detection. The devices are found to be highly stable with respect to time, mechanical flexing, and large (5 kGy) radiation doses. The new materials and fully tissue equivalent X-ray detectors reported here provide stable, printable, flexible, and tissue equivalent detectors with a high radiolucency that are ideally suited for wearable applications, where simultaneous monitoring and high transmission of the X-ray absorbed dose into the human body is required.

The [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (BTBT) planar system was used to functionalize the phthalocyanine ring aiming at synthesizing novel electron-rich π-conjugated macrocycles. The resulting ZnPc-BTBT and ZnPc-(BTBT)4 derivatives are the first two examples of a phthalocyanine subclass having potential use as solution-processable p-type organic semiconductors. In particular, the combination of experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations suggests compatible energy level alignments with mixed halide hybrid perovskite-based devices. Furthermore, ZnPc-(BTBT)4 features a high aggregation tendency, a useful tool to design compact molecular films. When tested as hole transport materials in perovskite solar cells under 100 mA cm-2 standard AM 1.5G solar illumination, ZnPc-(BTBT)4 gave power conversion efficiencies as high as 14.13 %, irrespective of the doping process generally required to achieve high photovoltaic performances. This work is a first step toward a new phthalocyanine core engineerization to obtain robust, yet more efficient and cost-effective materials for organic electronics and optoelectronics.

Development of stretchable electronics has been driven by key applications such as electronics skin for robotic or prosthetic. Mimicking skin functionalities imposes at a minimal level: stretchability, pressure, and temperature sensing capabilities. While the research on pressure sensors for artificial skin is extensive, stretchable temperature sensors remain less explored. In this work, a stretchable temperature and infrared sensor has been developed on a polydimethylsiloxane substrate. The sensor is based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) as a pyroelectric material. This material is sandwiched between two electrodes. The first one consists of aluminium serpentines, covered by gold in order to get electrical contact and maximum stretchability. The second one is based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) that has shown good electrical compatibility with PVDF-TrFE and provides the stretchability of the top electrode. Without poling the PVDF-TrFE, sensor has shown a sensitivity of around 7 pF.&deg, C-1 up to 35% strain without any change in its behaviour. Then, taking advantage on infrared absorption of PEDOT:PSS, a poled device has shown a pyroelectric peak of 13 mV to an infrared illumination of 5 mW at 830 nm. This stretchable device valuably allows an electronic skin (e-skin) use for contact and more importantly non-contact thermal sensing.

In this work we report on fully operational sub-micrometric low voltage OFETs by using graphene as the source-drain electrodes pair and a high- κ ultra-thin dielectric in a local gate architecture. The impact of the graphene electrodes on the miniaturization of the organic devices has been assessed, with particular attention to the influence of the contact resistances as well as the parasitic overlap gate capacitance on the device bandwidth. By the use of a modified Transmission-Line-Method, contact resistances have been analyzed as function of the applied voltages, revealing characteristic functional trends that follow the doping state of graphene electrodes. Through impedance spectroscopy of the electrodes, cut-off frequencies as high as 105 Hz have been estimated, highlighting the peculiar role of quantum capacitance of graphene in such architectures.

Multi-flngered OTFTs, with staggered top-gate configuration have been fabricated on flexible polyethylene-naphtalate (PEN) substrates (100 μm thick). Inkjet printing technique has been used to setup the silver contacts, while the organic layers and the dielectric fluoropolymer have been deposited by spin-coating. The p-type polymeric semiconductor is a solution processed 6,13-bis(triisopropyl-silyletynyl) pentacene. The semiconductor layer thickness is about 30 nm, while the dielectric fluoropolymer is 400 nm thick. These transistors have been characterized and a DC, and a transient accurate models have been developed and imported in CADENCE. Finally, SPECTRE has been used to simulate model circuits based on such a device. In this work we describe the design of high frequency logic gates and preliminary flip-flops design, exploiting PMOS organic transistor and its expected performances.

Great effort is being devoted to the fabrication of electronic devices based on rubrene thin films, because its outstanding charge transport properties make it one of the most promising organic semiconducting materials. Nonetheless, charge transport is strongly affected by the degree of crystallinity and degradation by photo-oxidation of rubrene. In the present work, in order to understand the dynamics of oxidation of rubrene when in the crystalline thin-film form, a combination of scanning probe techniques, such as Kelvin probe, phase contrast, and surface morphology atomic force microscopy, is used to study the oxidation process under ambient conditions of rubrene crystalline ultrathin films grown by organic molecular beam epitaxy on tetracene substrates. These films have a thickness of one or two molecular layers and consist of separated, island-like, epitaxial domains, whose orientation is determined by organic epitaxy. Theoretical calculations of the rubrene peroxide molecular dipole and structural data of rubrene and of purposely grown rubrene peroxide crystals, are exploited to determine the oxidation dynamics of such thin films and its connection with morphological, structural, and dielectric properties of the films. We demonstrate the formation of a native crystalline rubrene peroxide layer on top of the pristine rubrene crystalline domains. © 2011 American Chemical Society.

The application of organic electronic materials for the detection of ionizing radiations is very appealing thanks to their mechanical flexibility, low-cost and simple processing in comparison to their inorganic counterpart. In this work we investigate the direct X-ray photoconversion process in organic thin film photoconductors. The devices are realized by drop casting solution-processed bis-(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) onto flexible plastic substrates patterned with metal electrodes; they exhibit a strong sensitivity to X-rays despite the low X-ray photon absorption typical of low-Z organic materials. We propose a model, based on the accumulation of photogenerated charges and photoconductive gain, able to describe the magnitude as well as the dynamics of the X-ray-induced photocurrent. This finding allows us to fabricate and test a flexible 2 × 2 pixelated X-ray detector operating at 0.2 V, with gain and sensitivity up to 4.7 × 104 and 77,000 nC mGy−1 cm−3, respectively., Organic electronics show advantages in easy processing, mechanical flexibility and low costs compared to their inorganic counterparts, yet there are not many proofs for the sake of X-ray detection. Here, Basiricò et al. build a flexible X-ray detector operated at sub-1 V using pentacene-based thin films.

We report about the use of a printed pentafluorothiophenol layer on top of the dielectric surface as a passivation coating to improve the operational stability of all-ink-jet printed transistors. Transistors with bottom-gate structure were fabricated using cross-linked poly-4-vinylphenol (c-PVP) as dielectric layer and an ink formulation of an amorphous triarylamine polymer as semiconductor. The resulting TFTs had low turn-on voltage (Vth < |5 V|) and a mobility ≈0.1 cm2/(V s). A comparison of identically fabricated transistors shows that devices with coated dielectric have a higher operational stability than those using bare c-PVP. This conclusion is supported by a quantitative study of the threshold voltage shift with time under continuous operation. Long exposure to the ambient atmosphere causes an increase in the threshold voltage strongly dependent on the used semiconducting ink formulation. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

In this work, we report on the fabrication and characterization of organic light-emitting transistors (OLETs) within an indium–tin-oxide (ITO)-free platform, using graphene-based transparent conductive electrodes in place of ITO as gate electrode. A direct comparison between twin bottom-gate/top-contacts OLETs, where a standard ITO layer is replaced with a film made of a few graphene layers, shows that comparable electrical characteristics can be obtained along with a clear improvement in the electroluminescence generation characteristics. Our experimental findings pave the way to the exploitation of graphene-based transparent conductive electrodes within this class of emerging devices on flexible substrates, further promoting the novel era of flexible organic electronics.

While the demonstrated power conversion eff i ciency of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) now exceeds 10%, new design rules are required to tailor interfaces at the molecular level for optimal exciton dissociation and charge transport in higher effi ciency devices. We show that molecular shape-complementarity between donors and acceptors can drive performance in OPV devices. Using core hole clock (CHC) X-ray spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT), we compare the electronic coupling, assembly, and charge transfer rates at the interface between C 60 acceptors and fl at- or contorted-hexabenzocorone (HBC) donors. The HBC donors have similar optoelectronic properties but differ in molecular contortion and shape matching to the fullerene acceptors. We show that shape-complementarity drives self-assembly of an intermixed morphology with a donor/acceptor (D/A) ball-and-socket interface, which enables faster electron transfer from HBC to C 60 . The supramolecular assembly and faster electron transfer rates in the shape complementary heterojunction lead to a larger active volume and enhanced exciton dissociation rate. This work provides fundamental mechanistic insights on the improved effi ciency of organic photovoltaic devices that incorporate these concave/convex D/A materials.

In this paper, we report our experimental design in searching a smart and easy-to-read dosimeter used to detect 6MV X-rays for improving patient safety in radiation oncology. The device was based on an organic emissive solutions of poly(2-methoxy-5(2′-ethylhexyloxy)- p -phenylenevinylene) (MEH-PPV), aluminum-tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) (Alq 3 ) and additive components which were characterized by UV–Vis absorption, photoluminescence and CIE color coordinate diagram. The optical properties of MEH-PPV/Alq 3 solutions have been examined as function of radiation dose over the range of 0–100Gy. It has shown that MEH-PPV/Alq 3 solutions are specifically sensitive to X-rays, since the effect of radiation on this organic system is strongly correlated with the efficient spectral overlap between Alq 3 emission and the absorption of degraded MEH-PPV, which alters the color and photoemission of MEH-PPV/Alq 3 mixtures from red to yellow, and then to green. The rate of this change is more sensitive when MEH-PPV/Alq 3 is irradiated in the presence of benzoyl peroxide than when in the presence of hindered phenolic stabilizers, respectively, an accelerator and an inhibitor to activate or inhibit free radical formation. This gives rise to optimize the response curve of the dosimeter. It is clear from the experimental results that organic emissive semiconductors have potential to be used as dedicated and low-cost dosimeters to provide an independent check of beam output of a linear accelerator and therefore to give patients the opportunity to have information on the dose prescription or equipment-related problems a few minutes before being exposed to radiation.

4-Hydroxycyanobenzene (4HCB) semiconducting single crystals have been probed by polarized IR radiation under various conditions. Linearly polarized IR spectroscopy was found to be sufficient to identify the main crystal axes, provided that crystallographic and electrical analyses have been carried out at least once on the crystal. Moreover, a 2D anisotropic hydrogen bonding degree, which results to be higher along the axis a (one of the two planar axes), has been found. Static electrical polarization induces a rather large and anisotropic rotation of the 3D electric dipole vector of the crystal ((p) over bar), which increases its component along the axis a and decreases the one along b (the other planar axis). When the crystal is probed under actual charge transport conditions in a field effect transistor (FET) structure, the IR radiation is more effectively screened along axis a (which presents the highest carrier mobility) than along axis b.

In this paper, the photoexcitation response of high mobility n-type organic field-effect transistors is analyzed. White light exposure of N,N_-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic diimide _PTCDI-C8H_ transistors is demonstrated to promote the occurrence of metastable conductance states with very long retention times, similar to what has been previously reported for p-type compounds. Even in the absence of a gate-source voltage VGS, the complete recovery of the initial electrical condition can take up to 20 days. However, the initial state restoring is electrically controllable by the application of a positive VGS. These effects suggest that PTCDI-C8H is an interesting n-type material for the development of light-sensitive organic circuitry.