Enforced one-dimensional photoconductivity in core-cladding hexabenzocoronenes.

Cohen, Yaron S; Xiao, Shengxiong; Steigerwald, Michael L; Nuckolls, Colin; Kagan, Cherie R · Nano Lett · 2006

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Photoconductivity in contorted hexabenzocoronene liquid crystals is found to be exclusively one-dimensional. Spectroscopic measurements and density functional theory support the existence of two pi-systems attributed to a low-energy radialene-core and higher energy out-of-plane alkoxyphenyl rings. Persistent photocurrents, measured as a function of field, channel length, and intensity, fit a stretched exponential characteristic of intracolumnar transport, restricted through the radialene-core by the alkoxyphenyl-cladding. Bimolecular recombination is enhanced with increasing carrier concentration by the system's one-dimensionality.