IRG 4

Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Nanoelectronic Materials from Molecules to Printable Thin Films

Tobin J. Marks (Leader), chemistry
Lincoln J. Lauhon (Co-Leader), materials science & engineering
Michael Bedzyk, materials science & engineering
Mark C. Hersam, materials science & engineering
Mark A. Ratner, chemistry
Tamar Seideman, chemistry

The primary objective of IRG-4 is to improve fundamental understanding, optimize process efficiency, and enable novel technological advances across multiple length-scales of hybrid organic-inorganic materials for nanoelectronic applications.  Two major themes organize the group’s efforts to realize new design principles and paradigms for electronic materials.

Materials Design: IRG-4 integrates theory and experiment to develop deep understanding of structure-electronic property relationships from the molecular scale to the macro scale. This understanding is employed to advance and optimize organic conductors and dielectrics and open up new vistas in the design of hybrid materials for nanoelectronic applications.

Materials Integration: IRG-4 pursues fundamental chemical and structural understandings of the interfaces between organic and inorganic materials including nanowires, nanotubes, and graphene, leading to advances in interface engineering and processing that are enabling for novel hybrid materials and technologies.

Accomplishments include:

• The theoretically guided design and synthesis of new organic high-κ dielectrics and inorganic semiconductor nanowire heterostructures.
• Processing of  single-walled carbon nanotubes into metallic  transparent conducting contacts and semiconducting thin film transistors.
•  Integration of molecular semiconductors, organic dieletrics, and inorganic nanowires into printable electronics.
• Spatially resolved electrical characterization  of inorganic nanowires correlated with atomic-scale dopant mapping.
• New theories of non-equilibrium transport and quantum electronic structure of molecular materials and molecules at interfaces.

As an example, self-assembled nano-dielectrics (SANDS) are being used to dramatically improve thin film transistors made from organic, nanotube, and nanowire active layers.

Selected Research Highlights:

Detection of Single Gold Atoms in Silicon Nanowires

Jonathan E. Allen, Eric R. Hemesath , Daniel E. Perea , Jessica L. Lensch -Falk, and Lincoln J. Lauhon

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Atomic Force Photovoltaic Microscopy

B. J. Leever , M. F. Durstock , M. D. Irwin, A. W. Hains , T. J. Marks, L. S. C. Pingree, and M. C. Hersam

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Polymer Surface Viscoelasticity Affects Organic Thin-Film Transistor Performance

Choongik Kim, Antonio Facchetti and Tobin J. Marks

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Optimizing Frequency Dependent Charge Transport in Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)

L. S. C. Pingree, M. T. Russell, T. J. Marks, M. C. Hersam

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