Organic semiconductors (OSC) are still surging in popularity for sustainable electronic devices, especially since they can perform as well as amorphous and polycrystalline silicon materials. Although OSCs have processing advantages that give rise to novel opportunities compared to inorganic semiconductors (ISCs), devices usually require inorganic materials for highly conductive connections or other functionality. Significantly, OSCs can be used to tune or modify the behavior of inorganic semiconductors (ISCs) by exploiting the junction between two semiconductors (a heterojunction).The possible creation of stable interfaces between ISCs and OSCs provides a practically limitless range of functionalities. Broadly, my goal is to study interfaces between OSCs and ISCs (hybrid heterojunctions) by testing devices of different configurations and altering the internal fields systematically, as well as with the aid of electron- and force-microscopy, and photoelectron spectroscopy. This thesis contains three major sections based around nascent, relevant applications: field-effect transistors, topological insulators, and thermoelectrics.First I study the effects of combining tellurium thin-films with OSC layers in field-effect transistors, where the organic acts both as a substrate modification layer and electrostatic gate. Secondly, I use electron withdrawing OSCs as gating materials for modifying Bi2Se3 in order to realize fundamental topological insulator behavior. Thirdly, I develop polymer-particle composites, including doping of the polymers and stabilization of inorganic particles with an electronic density of states that supports good thermoelectric behavior. We show that OSCs can undeniably be used to significantly modify properties of ISCs, namely tellurium, bismuth selenide, and organometallic compounds. I will first discuss the interfacial fields intrinsic to each heterojunction or device structure. Then I implement an additional electrostatic gate as part of the overall structure in order to further interrogate and modify device behavior. The additional gate is provided by introducing a polymer dielectric layer and embedding charges in this dielectric by corona charging method. This work will lead to improved design of hybrid devices because we can obtain benefits of both materials to achieve new performance records (ZT>0.1 in thermoelectric polymer-particle composites) and capabilities (topological insulator behavior), and also use heterojunctions as a basis to study and design materials or systems (tellurium/OSC transistors).
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
