Photoinduced conductance and carrier switching in homoannulene ester derivatives: A theoretical exploration

Abstract

Although difficult, recently a neutral homoannulene ester has been derived, which shows photoswitching between two isomers. On calculating the charge-carrier transport properties, we have found a substantial change in conductance as well as current values as we move from one photoswitchable state to another. Furthermore, the homoannulene ester shows carrier switching on DCV (dicyanovinylene, a strong electron withdrawing group) substitution. Additionally, DCV substitution enhances the conductance switching ratio to a huge extent at zero-bias and this large value is also retained at higher biases. This approach can be successfully used in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and other optoelectronic devices, where change in current is the essential requirement.