Nano-confined crystallization of organic ultrathin nanostructure arrays with programmable geometries

Hanfei Gao,Lei Jiang,Huijie Wang,Xiangyu Jiang,Shuang Li,Xiao Wei,Yuchen Wu,Jiangang Feng,Yuchen Qiu,Yuyan Zhao,Yewang Su

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11883-6

Abstract

Fabricating ultrathin organic semiconductor nanostructures attracts wide attention towards integrated electronic and optoelectronic applications. However, the fabrication of ultrathin organic nanostructures with precise alignment, tunable morphology and high crystallinity for device integration remains challenging. Herein, an assembly technique for fabricating ultrathin organic single-crystal arrays with different sizes and shapes is achieved by confining the crystallization process in a sub-hundred nanometer space. The confined crystallization is realized by controlling the deformation of the elastic topographical templates with tunable applied pressures, which produces organic nanostructures with ordered crystallographic orientation and controllable thickness from less than 10 nm to ca. 1 μm. The generality is verified for patterning various typical solution-processable materials with long-range order and pure orientation, including organic small molecules, polymers, metal-halide perovskites and nanoparticles. It is anticipated that this technique with controlling the crystallization kinetics by the governable confined space could facilitate the electronic integration of organic semiconductors.

Highlights

Fabricating ultrathin organic semiconductor nanostructures attracts wide attention towards integrated electronic and optoelectronic applications
We have further demonstrated the general application of our method by employing organic small molecules, polymers, metal-halide perovskites and nanocrystals for patterning ultrathin nanostructures with long-range order and pure crystallographic orientation
To prepare the confined space for the fabrication of 1D ultrathin organic arrays, a photoresist micropillar template was manufactured through the photolithography technique

Summary

Introduction

Fabricating ultrathin organic semiconductor nanostructures attracts wide attention towards integrated electronic and optoelectronic applications. Large-area ordered nanostructures are needed for the integration of organic electronic devices, it still remains challenging to fabricate high-performance ultrathin organic patterns with precise alignment, high-quality crystallography and tunable morphology. The height of crystals was influenced by the quantity of molecules, but cannot be continuously tuned It has a limitation on continuously tuning the morphology of organic single crystals in a large area, especially for the patterning of few-molecule-layer nanocrystals, for the high-quality integration of organic electronics. An efficient patterning technique is developed for fabricating of ultrathin organic single-crystal arrays with high crystallinity, ordered crystallographic orientation and programmable morphology. We have further demonstrated the general application of our method by employing organic small molecules, polymers, metal-halide perovskites and nanocrystals for patterning ultrathin nanostructures with long-range order and pure crystallographic orientation

Methods

Results

Conclusion