High-Sensitivity Electric Force Microscopy of Organic Electronic Materials and Devices

Conducting and semiconducting organic materials have long been known [1], [2], but recent advances in chemical synthesis [3], [4] have enabled organic materials to begin delivering on the promise of mass-produced economical electronic devices. Organic electronic materials are better suited for constructing high-efficiency light-emitting diodes [5]-[8], solar cells [9], [10], and cheap solution-processable thin-film transistors [6], [11]-[18] than are crystalline inorganic semiconductors such as silicon and gallium arsenide. The electronic/optical properties and solubility of organic materials can be tuned independently by chemical synthesis [4]. Since they can be processed and patterned at ambient temperature, organic electronic materials are compatible with flexible large-area substrates [19].