The effect of controlled thermal annealing on charge transport and photogeneration in bulk‐heterojunction solar cells made from blend films of regioregular poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and methanofullerene (PCBM) has been studied. With respect to the charge transport, it is demonstrated that the electron mobility dominates the transport of the cell, varying from 10–8 m2 V–1 s–1 in as‐cast devices to ≈3 × 10–7 m2 V–1 s–1 after thermal annealing. The hole mobility in the P3HT phase of the blend is dramatically affected by thermal annealing. It increases by more than three orders of magnitude, to reach a value of up to ≈ 2 × 10–8 m2 V–1 s–1 after the annealing process, as a result of an improved crystallinity of the film. Moreover, upon annealing the absorption spectrum of P3HT:PCBM blends undergo a strong red‐shift, improving the spectral overlap with solar emission, which results in an increase of more than 60 % in the rate of charge‐carrier generation. Subsequently, the experimental electron and hole mobilities are used to study the photocurrent generation in P3HT:PCBM devices as a function of annealing temperature. The results indicate that the most important factor leading to a strong enhancement of the efficiency, compared with non‐annealed devices, is the increase of the hole mobility in the P3HT phase of the blend. Furthermore, numerical simulations indicate that under short‐circuit conditions the dissociation efficiency of bound electron–hole pairs at the donor/acceptor interface is close to 90 %, which explains the large quantum efficiencies measured in P3HT:PCBM blends.

Electronic transport through single molecules has been studied extensively by academic and industrial research groups. Discrete tunnel junctions, or molecular diodes, have been reported using scanning probes, break junctions, metallic crossbars and nanopores. For technological applications, molecular tunnel junctions must be reliable, stable and reproducible. The conductance per molecule, however, typically varies by many orders of magnitude. Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) may offer a promising route to the fabrication of reliable devices, and charge transport through SAMs of alkanethiols within nanopores is well understood, with non-resonant tunnelling dominating the transport mechanism. Unfortunately, electrical shorts in SAMs are often formed upon vapour deposition of the top electrode, which limits the diameter of the nanopore diodes to about 45 nm. Here we demonstrate a method to manufacture molecular junctions with diameters up to 100 microm with high yields (> 95 per cent). The junctions show excellent stability and reproducibility, and the conductance per unit area is similar to that obtained for benchmark nanopore diodes. Our technique involves processing the molecular junctions in the holes of a lithographically patterned photoresist, and then inserting a conducting polymer interlayer between the SAM and the metal top electrode. This simple approach is potentially low-cost and could pave the way for practical molecular electronics.

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Electron transport in semiconducting polymers is usually inferior to hole transport, which is ascribed to charge trapping on isolated defect sites situated within the energy bandgap. However, a general understanding of the origin of these omnipresent charge traps, as well as their energetic position, distribution and concentration, is lacking. Here we investigate electron transport in a wide range of semiconducting polymers by current-voltage measurements of single-carrier devices. We observe for this materials class that electron transport is limited by traps that exhibit a gaussian energy distribution in the bandgap. Remarkably, the electron-trap distribution is identical for all polymers considered: the number of traps amounts to 3 × 10(23) traps per m(3) centred at an energy of ~3.6 eV below the vacuum level, with a typical distribution width of ~0.1 eV. This indicates that the electron traps have a common origin that, we suggest, is most likely related to hydrated oxygen complexes. A consequence of this finding is that the trap-limited electron current can be predicted for any polymer.

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A memory functionality is a prerequisite for many applications of electronic devices. Organic nonvolatile memory devices based on ferroelectricity are a promising approach toward the development of a low‐cost memory technology. In this Review Article we discuss the latest developments in this area with a focus on three of the most important device concepts: ferroelectric capacitors, field‐effect transistors, and diodes. Integration of these devices into larger memory arrays is also discussed.

Effect of traps on the performance of bulk heterojunction organic solar cells Mandoc, M. M.; Kooistra, F. B.; Hummelen, J. C.; de Boer, B.; Blom, P. W. M.