Morphology and mobility as tools to control and unprecedentedly enhance X-ray sensitivity in organic thin-films.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32358502.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-15974-7 and PMC identifier 7195493.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Organic semiconductor materials exhibit a great potential for the realization of large-area solution-processed devices able to directly detect high-energy radiation. However, only few works investigated on the mechanism of ionizing radiation detection in this class of materials, so far. In this work we investigate the physical processes behind X-ray photoconversion employing bis-(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene thin-films deposited by bar-assisted meniscus shearing. The thin film coating speed and the use of bis-(triisopropylsilylethynyl)-pentacene:polystyrene blends are explored as tools to control and enhance the detection capability of the devices, by tuning the thin-film morphology and the carrier mobility. The so-obtained detectors reach a record sensitivity of 1.3 · 10<sup>4</sup> µC/Gy·cm<sup>2</sup>, the highest value reported for organic-based direct X-ray detectors and a very low minimum detectable dose rate of 35 µGy/s. Thus, the employment of organic large-area direct detectors for X-ray radiation in real-life applications can be foreseen.