Luminescence quenching in the presence of polarons is one of the major challenges in organic light emitting devices. In this work, exciton quenching in the presence of polarons is studied using phase sensitive photocurrent measurements on pentacene field effect transistors. The enhancement of conduction in the organic field effect transistors on light illumination is studied using photocurrent spectral response measurements and corresponding optical simulations. The photocurrent is shown to be governed by the polaron mobility and the exciton quenching efficiency, both of which depend on the polaron density in the channel. Two models are proposed on the exciton dynamics in the presence of gate induced polarons in the transistor channel. The first model simulates the steady-state exciton concentration profile in the presence of exciton-polaron interaction. The second one is a three-dimensional steady state exciton-polaron interaction model, which supports the findings from the first model. It is shown that the excitons quench by transferring its energy to polarons, thereby promoting the latter to high energy states in the density of states manifold. The polarons move in the higher energy states with greater microscopic mobility before thermalizing, thereby leading to an enhancement of conduction. It is observed that for the present system, where charge carrier transport is by hopping, all polarons interact with excitons. This implies that for low mobility systems, the interaction is not limited to deep trapped polarons.

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The combined effect of deposition rate and substrate temperature on the film crystallinity, morphology, and electronic properties of pentacene is studied. It is shown that the channel mobility in polycrystalline pentacene thin-film transistors is relatively immune to substrate temperature, and the films offer good hole mobility when grown at a high rate. This is advantageous when high throughput with low deviation in electrical parameters over devices are required. The surface morphology is characterized by atomic force microscopy measurements and the crystallinity is studied using x-ray diffraction. The effect of growth parameters on the crystalline phases of pentacene is correlated to the charge carrier transport. It is found that the field-effect mobility is primarily affected by the crystalline phases of the film rather than the grain size. The charge carrier dependence of the hole mobility is used to parameterize the dispersion (width) in the density of states (DOS) of the highest occupied molecular orbital of the films in the transistor channel region. It is found that the presence of multiple phases in the path of the charge carrier flow increases the dispersion of the DOS.

This article adds a new direction to the functional capability of protein-protected atomically precise gold clusters as sensors. Counting on the extensively researched intense luminescence of these clusters and considering the electron donating nature of select amino acids, we introduce a dual probe sensor capable of sensing changes in luminescence and conductivity, utilizing bovine serum albumin-protected atomically precise gold clusters hosted on nanofibers. To this end, we have also developed a hybrid nanofiber with a conducting core with a porous dielectric shell. We show that clusters in combination with nanofibers offer a highly selective and sensitive platform for the detection of trace quantities of trinitrotoluene, both in solution and in the vapor phase. In the solution phase, trinitrotoluene (TNT) can be detected down to 1 ppt at room temperature, whereas in vapor phase, 4.8 × 109 molecules of TNT can be sensed using a 1 mm fiber. Although the development in electrospinning techniques for fabricating nanofibers as sensors is quite substantial, a hybrid fiber with the dual properties of conductivity and luminescence has not been reported yet.

A major loss mechanism in high intensity organic light-emitting devices is the quenching of excitons in the presence of polarons. In this work, the interaction of excitons in N,N′-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N′-diphenyl-(1,1′-biphenyl)-4,4′-diamine (NPB) with holes in pentacene is studied in a pentacene/NPB bilayer organic field-effect transistor. Gate-modulated steady-state photoluminescence quenching measurements are performed. The excitons are confined in NPB and the polarons in an ultrathin layer of pentacene at the pentacene/NPB organic heterojunction. It is shown that excitons are quenched by polarons, even if they are located on different materials, provided that the exciton and polaron are separated by a length within which efficient Forster resonance energy transfer can occur. The experimental findings are supported by a steady-state three-dimensional simulation of the gate voltage-dependent exciton−polaron quenching efficiency. The Forster resonant energy transfer radius for exciton−polaron interaction at the pentacene/NPB heterojunction is estimated to be in the range of 2.3−3.0 nm.

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The effect of substrate temperature and deposition rate on the film morphology, crystallinity, and electronic properties of Pentacene transistors treated with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is studied. The gate bias dependence of mobility is used to estimate the width of the density of states and thereby quantify the disorder of the highest occupied molecular orbital. A low deposition rate and the substrate held at room temperature are shown to be the optimal conditions for good mobility (0.20 cm2 V−1 s−1) and low electronic disorder (50 ± 10 meV). X-ray diffraction measurements are performed to quantify the ratio of the two crystalline phases (thin-film phase and bulk phase) present in the film. The crystalline phases, rather than grain size, plays a significant role in determining the charge carrier mobility. Film deposition with the substrate at room temperature leads to low electronic disorder as the film is composed of one crystalline phase (thin-film phase), while high substrate temperature makes the film increasingly polymorphic, leading to increased electronic disorder (up to 230 meV). A high deposition rate leads to poor morphology of Pentacene near the source/drain electrode edge, thereby leading to increased contact resistance and electronic disorder. Hence, a low growth rate at room temperature is required for HMDS treated substrates to induce good crystalline properties of the film in the channel region, which results in enhanced electronic properties of the transistors.