Solution-processed optoelectronic devices: investigating and controlling materials parameters for enhanced performance

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Semiconductors are the foundation of the information age. Computers run on silicon. The Internet's fiber-optic backbone uses beams of light generated in InGaAsP lasers. Digital cameras register images in silicon sensors for visible light, or InGaAs photodetector arrays when infrared night vision is needed.    Pure, perfect crystals are the basis of much of today's semiconductor technology. However, the equipment to grow single-crystal semiconductors is costly, as is its operation, especially in view of the dangerous reagents that are often required.    We propose herein to advance our work in solution-processed optoelectronics. We have recently shown that spin-cast infrared optical sensors can outperform their perfectly single-crystal counterparts. Now we seek, through the present proposal, to deepen understanding of the operation of solution-processed optoelectronic devices; and to use this understanding to improve device performance through rational control.    We will put forth and experimentally validate a model of the origins of responsivity and noise inside our solution-processed photoconductive photodetectors; demonstrate experimental control, through materials processing, over the structural and electronic properties of materials; and use this control to demonstrate rational engineering of photodetector performance towards to specific application-oriented goals.    In sum, we will pursue the materials chemistry, processing, and device physics to make it practical to achieve high-yielding, consistent, optoelectronic devices tailored to particular applications. At a scientific level, the research will yield insights into the controlled manipulation of colloidal quantum dot bulk materials and surfaces. At an applied level, the research will lead to record-performance devices (one for visible-wavelength video-frame-rate operation, the other tailored to night-vision applications) for imaging. The project will, through the insights it generates, also provide foundational scientific support to our parallel activity in the commercialization of our solution-processed photodetector technology.