Organic/hybrid thin films deposited by matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE)

Abstract

Some of the most exciting materials research in the 21st century attempts to resolve the challenge of simulating, synthesizing, and characterizing new materials with unique properties designed from first principles. Achievements in such development for organic and organic-inorganic hybrid materials make them important options for electronic and/or photonic devices because they can impart multi-functionality, flexibility, transparency, and sustainability to emerging systems, such as wearable electronics. Functional organic materials include small molecules, oligomers, and polymers, while hybrid materials include inorganic nanomaterials (such as zero-dimensional quantum dots, one-dimensional carbon nanotubes, or two-dimensional nanosheets) combined with organic matrices. A critically important step to implementing new electronic and photonic devices using such materials is the processing of thin films. While solution-based processing is the most common laboratory technique for organic and hybrid materials, vacuum-based deposition has been critical to the commercialization of organic light emitting diodes based on small molecules, for example. Therefore, it is desirable to explore vacuum-based deposition of organic and hybrid materials that include larger macromolecules, such as polymers. This review article motivates the need for physical vapor deposition of polymeric and hybrid thin films using matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE), which is a type of pulsed laser deposition. This review describes the development of variations in the MAPLE technique, discusses the current understanding of laser-target interactions and growth mechanisms for different MAPLE variations, surveys demonstrations of MAPLE-deposited organic and hybrid materials for electronic and photonic devices, and provides a future outlook for the technique.

Tunable internal quantum well alignment in rationally designed oligomer-based perovskite films deposited by resonant infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation

“…Here, we tackle the challenges of depositing COP films using the RIR-MAPLE technique. [29][30][31][32] The evaporation target in RIR-MAPLE is composed of a frozen precursor solution wherein in AE4TPbI 4 photophysics. 17 While intriguing, oligothiophenebased perovskites are challenging to work with, particularly those incorporating quaterthiophene; single crystals of AE4TPbI 4 have only recently been reported, 3 and those of AE4TPbCl 4 have never been, emphasizing the difficulty posed by their low solubility.…”

“…the hydroxyl bonds of a ''matrix'' co-solvent are resonant with the incident infrared laser. 32 This resonant absorption of laser energy avoids damaging sensitive precursor species, instead only evaporating the frozen solvent matrix surrounding them. Solubility problems are mitigated by the ability to use low concentration (B10 mM or less) precursor solutions to create contiguous thin films.…”

Exploiting physical vapor deposition for morphological control in semi‐crystalline polymer films

“…The polymer‐friendly technique has been applied to crystalline polymers such as PEO and PE for systematic crystallization studies . Furthermore, it allows for fabricating electronic and photonic devices with polymers . The size of these polymers range from 3 to 70 kDa.…”

“…We then highlight recent advances in the field by the utilization of MAPLE, with particular emphasis on work from our group demonstrating, for instance, the ability to control crystal lamellar thickness and extent of crystallinity. Moreover, it has immense potential in the application of polymeric semiconducting devices . Future opportunities are discussed at the end of the review.…”

Transparent MXene-Polymer Supercapacitive Film Deposited Using RIR-MAPLE

“…One such novel approach is RIR-MAPLE (resonant infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation) [10]. RIR-MAPLE is particularly useful for creating composite organic/inorganic films comprising materials that require incompatible solvents and cannot be deposited using traditional solution processing techniques.…”