Nature Communications (May 2018)

Crystal step edges can trap electrons on the surfaces of n-type organic semiconductors

  • Tao He,
  • Yanfei Wu,
  • Gabriele D’Avino,
  • Elliot Schmidt,
  • Matthias Stolte,
  • Jérôme Cornil,
  • David Beljonne,
  • P. Paul Ruden,
  • Frank Würthner,
  • C. Daniel Frisbie

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04479-z
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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The microstructure of organic semiconductors affects their transport properties, but directly probing this relationship is challenging. He et al. show that step edges act as electron traps on the surfaces of n-type single crystals, resulting in a field effect transistor mobility that depends on step density.