Identifying the Molecular Origins of High-Performance in Organic Photodetectors Based on Highly Intermixed Bulk Heterojunction Blends

Abstract

A bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) structure of organic semiconductor blend is widely used in photon-to-electron converting devices such as organic photodetectors (OPD) and photovoltaics (OPV). However, the impact of the molecular structure on the interfacial electronic states and optoelectronic properties of the constituent organic semiconductors is still unclear, limiting further development of these devices for commercialization. Herein, the critical role of donor molecular structure on OPD performance is identified in highly intermixed BHJ blends containing a small-molecule donor and C60 acceptor. Blending introduces a twisted structure in the donor molecule and a strong coupling between donor and acceptor molecules. This results in ultrafast exciton separation (<1 ps), producing bound (binding energy ∼135 meV), localized (∼0.9 nm), and highly emissive interfacial charge transfer (CT) states. These interfacial CT states undergo efficient dissociation under an applied electric field, leading to highly efficient OPDs in reverse bias but poor OPVs. Further structural twisting and molecular-scale aggregation of the donor molecules occur in blends upon thermal annealing just above the transition temperature of 150 °C at which donor molecules start to reorganize themselves without any apparent macroscopic phase-segregation. These subtle structural changes lead to significant improvements in charge transport and OPD performance, yielding ultralow dark currents (∼10-10 A cm-2), 2-fold faster charge extraction (in μs), and nearly an order of magnitude increase in effective carrier mobility. Our results provide molecular insights into high-performance OPDs by identifying the role of subtle molecular structural changes on device performance and highlight key differences in the design of BHJ blends for OPD and OPV devices.