Sublimely simple method makes ultrathin organic crystals

Abstract

Forming extremely thin crystals of organic semiconductors under ambient conditions is now possible. The key is a tiny gap. Material is sprayed on a heated surface where it sublimes and rises just 300 µm before condensing to form very thin crystals on the surface above ( 2020, DOI: ). The method uses a simple heater and common organic semiconductor materials to make ultrathin crystals, which have better performance in devices like light-emitting diodes and field-effect transistors because of the resulting film’s low electrical resistance. The method could make fabrication of these thin electronics easier and cheaper. Yang Liu, Xutang Tao, and their colleagues at Shandong University refined a method that they had developed to form pure organic crystals by simply vaporizing material across a gap of a few hundred micrometers ( 2018, DOI: ). The researchers used solid powders as the reservoir material in their first effort, but in the