Fundamental processes in organic spintroncis

Abstract

Organic spintronics can be divided into two major topics: magnetic field effect and spin injection. It has been shown that external magnetic field can significantly change photoluminescence, injection current, electroluminescence and photocurrent in organic semiconducting materials, which corresponds to magnetic field effect in organic semiconducting materials. In recent years, magnetic field effects in non-magnetic organic semiconducting materials have attracted intensive attention and research interest. They have emerged as powerful experimental tools to study useful and unuseful processes in charge-transport and excited states in organic electronic, optic and optoelectronic devices, providing effective approaches to tackle bottle-neck problems in charge-transport and excited states processes and offering scientific principles for muti-functional integration of magnetic, optical and electronic properties. In addition, magnetic field effects open new avenues to enhance energy conversion efficiency, frequency range and sensitivity in optoelectronic detecting or sensing devices. Furthermore, spin injection and its tuning on charge-transport and excited states processes based on ferromagnetic electrodes in organic semiconducting materials and devices can be used to develop novel functional spin-optoelectronic devices. This paper reviews the fundamental processes involved in the effects of magnetic field and spin injection on optoelectronic functions in organic semiconducting materials and devices.