Photoinduced conductance and carrier switching in homoannulene ester derivatives: A theoretical exploration

This approach can be successfully used in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and other optoelectronic devices. [Display omitted] •Charge-carrier transport properties of stable neutral homoannulene ester derivatives have been investigated.•The unsubstituted homoannulene ester is hole conducting, while the DCV substituted one is electron conducting.•Electron withdrawing group (DCV) red shifted the UV/Visible spectra of the conjugated systems.•DCV substitution also enhances the switching ratio (ON/OFF) to a huge extent.•The molecules can act as novel molecular photoswitch.•The conductance as well as current value decreases as photoswitching occurs between the two isomers of the homoannulene ester. Although difficult, recently a neutral homoannulene ester has been derived, which shows photoswitching between two isomers. On calculating the charge-carrier transport properties, we have found a substantial change in conductance as well as current values as we move from one photoswitchable state to another. Furthermore, the homoannulene ester shows carrier switching on DCV (dicyanovinylene, a strong electron withdrawing group) substitution. Additionally, DCV substitution enhances the conductance switching ratio to a huge extent at zero-bias and this large value is also retained at higher biases. This approach can be successfully used in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and other optoelectronic devices, where change in current is the essential requirement.