Semitransparent Layers of Social Self-Sorting Merocyanine Dyes for Ultranarrow Bandwidth Organic Photodiodes

January 5, 2022

Title

Semitransparent Layers of Social Self-Sorting Merocyanine Dyes for Ultranarrow Bandwidth Organic Photodiodes

Author

Tim Schembri, Jin Hong Kim, Andreas Liess, Vladimir Stepanenko, Matthias Stolte, Frank Wurthner

Year

2021

Journal

ADVANCED OPTICAL MATERIALS

Abstract

Two dipolar merocyanines consisting of the same π-conjugated chromophore but different alkyl substituents adopt very different packing arrangements in their respective solid state with either H- or J-type exciton coupling, leading to ultranarrow absorption bands at 477 and 750 nm, respectively, due to exchange narrowing. The social self-sorting behavior of these push-pull chromophores in their mixed thin films is evaluated and the impact on morphology as well as opto-electronical properties is determined. The implementation of this well-tuned two-component material with tailored optical features allows to optimize planar heterojunction organic photodiodes with fullerene ​(C60) with either dual or single wavelength selectivity in the blue and NIR spectral range with ultranarrow bandwidths of only 11 nm (200 cm−1) and an external quantum efficiency of up to 18% at 754 nm under 0 V bias. The application of these photodiodes as low-power consuming heart rate monitors is demonstrated by a reflectance-mode photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor.

Instrument

V-770

Keywords

conjugated, ultranarrow absorption