1.School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China
2.Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Disaster Prevention and Emergency Technologies for Urban Lifeline Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China
3.Department of Mechanics, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
4.Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Laser Engineering, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Devices and Systems of Ministry of Education and Guangdong Province, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
5.School of Mechanical Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China
Xueqian Fang (studxfang@yeah.net)
Yu-Jia Zeng (yjzeng@szu.edu.cn)
Published:31 December 2024,
Published Online:09 December 2024,
Received:19 June 2024,
Revised:17 October 2024,
Accepted:15 November 2024
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Iqbal, M. A. et al. Unlocking high-performance near-infrared photodetection: polaron-assisted organic integer charge transfer hybrids. Light: Science & Applications, 13, 3285-3296 (2024).
Iqbal, M. A. et al. Unlocking high-performance near-infrared photodetection: polaron-assisted organic integer charge transfer hybrids. Light: Science & Applications, 13, 3285-3296 (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01695-9.
Room temperature femtowatt sensitivity remains a sought-after attribute
even among commercial inorganic infrared (IR) photodetectors (PDs). While organic IR PDs are poised to emerge as a pivotal sensor technology in the forthcoming Fourth-Generation Industrial Era
their performance lags behind that of their inorganic counterparts. This discrepancy primarily stems from poor external quantum efficiencies (
EQE
)
driven by inadequate exciton dissociation (high exciton binding energy) within organic IR materials
exacerbated by pronounced non-radiative recombination at narrow bandgaps. Here
we unveil a high-performance organic Near-IR (NIR) PD via integer charge transfer between Poly[2
5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3
2-b
]
thiophene
]
(C-14PBTTT) donor (D) and Tetrafluorotetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQF4) acceptor (A) molecules
showcasing strong low-energy subgap absorptions up to 2.5 µm. We observe that specifically
polaron excitation in these radical and neutral D-A blended molecules enables bound charges to exceed the Coulombic attraction to their counterions
leading to an elevated
EQE
(polaron absorption region) compared to Frenkel excitons. As a result
our devices achieve a high
EQE
of ~10
7
%
femtowatt sensitivity (
NEP)
of ~0.12 fW Hz
-1/2
along a response time of ~81 ms
at room temperature for a wavelength of 1.0 µm. Our innovative utilization of polarons highlights their potential as alternatives to Frenkel excitons in high-performance organic IR PDs.
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