Construction of Laterally Asymmetric Heterojunctions with Sub-Micrometer Resolution by Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Polythiophene Nanofibers

Polymeric semiconductors are crucial candidates for the construction of next-generation flexible and printable electronic devices. By virtue of the successful preparation of monodispersed colloidal solution in orthogonal solvent, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) nanofibers are developed into versatile building blocks for nanoelectronics and their compatibilities are verified with photolithographic lift-off technology. Then, the joint efforts from both the bottom-up hierarchical self-assembly and top-down self-alignment technology have led to the realization of lateral asymmetric heterojunctions with resolution better than 1 mu m. As a result, planar photovoltaic devices incorporating N,NMODIFIER LETTER PRIME-dioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide and P3HT supramolecular nanowires as active components are constructed with the cathode-to-anode distance being tuned from approximate to 0.1 to 1-2 mu m. Based on such a novel device configuration, an interesting phenomenon of channel-length-dependent photovoltaic efficiency is observed for the first time, strongly suggesting the impact of near-field light intensity on the performance of nanophotonic devices.

Automated summary

Polymeric semiconductors are important for next-generation electronic devices, and researchers have developed versatile P3HT nanofibers and achieved high-resolution lateral heterojunctions. By constructing planar photovoltaic devices, the impact of channel length on photovoltaic efficiency has been observed.