WFU research highlighted in
Nature and Nature Materials

The recent article of graduate student Peter Diemer, entitled “Vibration-Assisted Crystallization Improves Organic/Dielectric Interface in Organic Thin-Film Transistors” was highlighted in Nature and Nature Materials. This study reports on a simple, yet powerful method to fabricate organic field-effect transistors that outperform similar devices obtained by other solution approaches and reach the fundamental performance limits shown in corresponding single-crystal measurements. Quantum-mechanical calculations reveal that the observed improvement results from a significant reduction in trap density at the semiconductor/dielectric interface upon gentle mechanical treatment: the vibration-assisted crystallization allows the materials to reach more easily a global potential energy minimum, characterized by decreased fluctuations in molecular spacing and overlap. Undergraduate student Chris Lyle and graduate student Yaochuan Mei were co-authors and the work was performed in the Organic electronics group of Prof. Oana Jurchescu.