Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging with Nonfullerene-Based Photodetectors

Abstract
The solution-processed organic photodetectors underpin an emerging technology with inherent implications in the biological sensors and imaging displays. Conventional organic photodiodes, the core element of an organic photodetector, rely mainly on fullerene-based acceptors, which in combination with high and middle bandgap donors, limit the spectral photosensitivity to the visible range. Even in the case of low bandgap polymers the oscillator strength and thus the extinction coefficient are usually limited in the NIR due to the nature of molecular orbital hybridization. Instead, it is showed that pairing prototypical poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with rhodanine-benzothiadiazole-coupled indacenodithiophene (IDTBR), a nonfullerene electron acceptor absorbing beyond 750 nm, as the photoactive material of a simple photodiode results in a highly efficient organic photodetector with a record responsivity of 0.42 A W−1 and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 69% in the NIR (755 nm). Nonfullerene-based photodiodes are processed on amorphous silicon active matrix backplanes to realize large area flat panel photodetector imagers able to detect objects under visible and NIR light conditions with an exceptional combination of responsivity, dynamic response and image crosstalk.

Citation
Gasparini N, Gregori A, Salvador M, Biele M, Wadsworth A, et al. (2018) Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging with Nonfullerene-Based Photodetectors. Advanced Materials Technologies 3: 1800104. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/admt.201800104.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Cluster of Excellence “Engineering of Advanced Materials” at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of its “Excellence Initiative,” Synthetic Carbon Allotropes (SFB953) and Solar Technologies go Hybrid (SolTech). M.S. acknowledges primary support from a fellowship by the Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BPD/71816/2010). A.G. acknowledges financial support from EU Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013) under Grant Agreement No. 607585 (OSNIRO), and I.M. acknowledges EC FP7 SC2 (610115) and EPSRC Project EP/M005143/1.

Publisher
Wiley

Journal
Advanced Materials Technologies

DOI
10.1002/admt.201800104

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