Leveling up Organic Semiconductors with Crystal Twisting
St. John Whittaker, Hengyu Zhou, Rochelle B. Spencer, Yongfan Yang, Akash Tiwari, Justin Bendesky, Merritt McDowell, Pallavi Sundaram, Idalys Lozano, Shin Kim, Zhihua An, Alexander G. Shtukenberg, Bart Kahr, Stephanie S. Lee
Abstract
The performance of crystalline organic semiconductors depends on the solid-state structure, especially the orientation of the conjugated components with respect to device platforms. Often, crystals can be engineered by modifying chromophore substituents through synthesis. Meanwhile, dissymetry is necessary for high-tech applications like chiral sensing, optical telecommunications, and data storage. The synthesis of dissymmetric molecules is a labor-intensive exercise that might be undermined because common processing methods offer little control over orientation. Crystal twisting has emerged as a generalizable method for processing organic semiconductors and offers unique advantages, such as patterning of physical and chemical properties and chirality that arises from mesoscale twisting. The precession of crystal orientations can enrich performance because achiral molecules in achiral space groups suddenly become candidates for the aforementioned technologies that require dissymetry.