Implementation of Optical Characterization for Flexible Organic Electronics Applications

Abstract

One of the most rapidly evolving sectors of the modern science and technology is the flexible organic electronic devices (FEDs) that are expected to significantly improve and revolutionize our everyday life. The FED application includes the generation of electricity by renewable sources (by organic photovoltaic cells – OPVs), power storage (thin film batteries), the visualization of information (by organic displays), the working and living environment (ambient lighting, sensors), safety, market (smart labels, radio frequency identification tags – RFID), textiles (smart fabrics with embedded display and sensor capabilities), as well as healthcare (smart sensors for vital sign monitoring), etc. Although there has been important progresses in inorganic-based Si devices, there are numerous advances in the organic (semiconducting, conducting), inorganic, and hybrid (organic–inorganic) materials that exhibit desirable properties and stability, and in the synthesis and preparation methods. The understanding of the organic material properties can lead to the fast progress of the functionality and performance of FEDs. The investigation of the optical properties of these materials can promote the understanding of the optical, electrical, structural properties of organic semiconductors and electrodes and can contribute to the optimization of the synthesis process and the tuning of their structure and morphology. In this chapter, we will describe briefly some of the advances toward the implementation of optical characterization methods, such as Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) from the infrared to the visible and ultraviolet spectral region for the study of materials (flexible polymer substrates, barrier layers, transparent electrodes) to be used for application in the fabrication of FEDs.