One-dimensional hybrid nanostructure arrays from pi-conjugated organic small molecules and inorganic semiconductors for use in excitonic devices

该研究计划的主要主题是由有机和无机半导体组成的有组织的“混合”一维（1-D）纳米结构的生长，表征和器件应用。一维半导体结构，如纳米管（NT）和纳米线（NW）表现出独特的纳米尺度的现象（通常不会观察到的散装），起源于取向各向异性和尺寸限制效应。 它们也被证明可以提高整体性能。 由于这些特性，它们可以用于设计非常规的材料和器件配置，并有望克服光电子学和光子学领域的困难障碍。光子学领域中的一个这样的障碍是大多数常规材料中的三阶非线性极化率（chi 3）的小值，这目前阻碍了实时全息术和全光开关领域中的进展。 另一个障碍是在低成本激子太阳能电池领域，其中激子扩散瓶颈阻碍了较高能量转换效率的实现。 杂化有序纳米结构具有极大地改善激子器件性能和克服上述障碍的潜力。 因此，我们建议利用1-D混合纳米结构的独特性质和架构，以获得激子器件的上级性能。我们的方法的一个显着特点是，我们的目标是创建纳米复合材料，但定向和对齐的1-D混合NT/NW阵列。 我们还注意到，有数以百计的报告，每一个碳纳米管，金纳米线，二氧化钛纳米管，硅纳米线等相比之下，π共轭有机纳米管和纳米棒阵列很少受到关注，构成了一个前沿领域的研究。我们研究计划的一个关键组成部分是对由小分子π共轭体系制成的结晶纳米管和纳米棒阵列的综合研究。另一个组成部分是激子的进步，激子是操纵π共轭有机半导体和纳米结构无机半导体中静电束缚激发态的科学和技术。

The major themes of this research program are the growth, characterization and device applications of organized 'hybrid' one-dimensional (1-D) nanostructures composed of both organic and inorganic semiconductors. 1-D semiconductor architectures such as nanotubes (NTs) and nanowires (NWs) exhibit unique nanoscale phenomena (not normally observed in the bulk) which originate in orientation anisotropy and size confinement effects. They have also been demonstrated to achieve enhancement of bulk properties. Due to these characteristics, they can be used to design unconventional material and device configurations and hold the promise of overcoming difficult obstacles in the fields of photovoltaics and photonics. One such obstacle in the area of photonics is the small value of the third order non-linear susceptibility (chi3) in most conventional materials, which is currently impeding progress in the areas of real-time holography and all-optical switching. Another obstacle is in the area of low cost excitonic solar cells where achievement of higher energy conversion efficiencies is impeded by the exciton diffusion bottleneck. Hybrid organized nanostructures have the potential to dramatically improve the performance of excitonic devices and overcome the obstacles mentioned above. Therefore, we propose to exploit the unique properties and architecture of 1-D hybrid nanostructures to obtain superior performance in excitonic devices. A distinguishing feature of our approach is that we aim to create not nanocomposites, but oriented and aligned 1-D hybrid NT/NW arrays. We also note that there are hundreds of reports each on carbon nanotubes, gold nanowires, titanium dioxide nanotubes, silicon nanowires, etc. In contrast, pi-conjugated organic nanotube and nanorod arrays have received little attention and constitute a frontier area of research. A key component of our research program is the comprehensive study of crystalline nanotube and nanorod arrays made from small-molecule pi-conjugated systems. Another component is the advancement of excitonics, the science and technology of manipulating electrostatically bound excited states in pi-conjugated organic semiconductors and nanostructured inorganic semiconductors.