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Spontaneous formation of metastable orientation with well-organized permanent dipole moment in organic glassy films

Nature Materials volume 21, pages 819–825 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The performance of organic optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices is largely determined by the molecular orientation and resultant permanent dipole moment, yet this property is difficult to control during film preparation. Here, we demonstrate the active control of dipole direction—that is, vector direction and magnitude—in organic glassy films by physical vapour deposition. An organic glassy film with metastable permanent dipole moment orientation can be obtained by utilizing the small surface free energy of a trifluoromethyl unit and intramolecular permanent dipole moment induced by functional groups. The proposed molecular design rule could pave a way toward the formation of spontaneously polarized organic glassy films, leading to improvement in the performance of organic molecular devices.

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Fig. 1: Giant surface potential of vacuum-deposited films.
Fig. 2: Spontaneous orientation of proposed F-based molecules.
Fig. 3: Orientation of polarization in vacuum-deposited films of F-based molecules.
Fig. 4: Device applications of polar films.

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Source data are provided with this paper. Additional information is available from the authors on request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank K. Kusuhara and N. Nakamura of Kyushu University for preparing chemicals and their thermal analysis. The authors also thank H. Fujimoto, H.-W. Mo and K. Nagayoshi from i3-opera for their help with sample fabrication. This work was supported in part by the Programme for Building Regional Innovation Ecosystems of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, the Hoso Bunka Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant no. JP21K19010).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Masaki Tanaka, Morgan Auffray.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (OPERA), Kyushu University, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan

    Masaki Tanaka, Morgan Auffray, Hajime Nakanotani & Chihaya Adachi

  2. Department of Biotechnology and Life Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaki Tanaka

  3. International Institute for Carbon Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER), Kyushu University, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, Japan

    Hajime Nakanotani & Chihaya Adachi

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  1. Masaki Tanaka
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Contributions

The project was conceived and designed by M.T. M.T. designed molecules and M.A. synthesized them. H.N. built the experimental set-up for surface potential. M.T. prepared samples and measured their properties. M.T. and H.N. fabricated VPGs. M.T. and H.N. analysed data. All authors contributed to writing the paper and critically commented on the project.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Masaki Tanaka, Hajime Nakanotani or Chihaya Adachi.

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Nature Materials thanks Wolfgang Bruetting, Hirohiko Fukagawa and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Synthesis, Supplementary Figs. 1–24, Tables 1–3, Notes 1–3 and references.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 3

Thickness dependence of surface potential.

Source Data Fig. 4

Device performance, including current density–voltage characteristics and output current profiles.

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Tanaka, M., Auffray, M., Nakanotani, H. et al. Spontaneous formation of metastable orientation with well-organized permanent dipole moment in organic glassy films. Nat. Mater. 21, 819–825 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01265-7

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