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Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors

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A special issue of Coatings (ISSN 2079-6412). This special issue belongs to the section "Thin Films".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 7296

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhongkai Cheng

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Guest Editor

INFICON, East Syracuse, NY 13206, USA
Interests: photophysics; photochemistry; thin films; organic semiconductors
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Sheng Bi

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Guest Editor

School of Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Interests: semiconductor; organic electronics; organic photovoltaics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Light as an abundant and easily available natural energy resource has played a tremendously important role in the world energy crisis and in the reduction of the greenhouse effect. Optoelectronics is a promising technology field that consists of applying electronic devices to the sourcing, detection, and control of light. These devices can be a part of many applications, including military services, telecommunications, and medical equipment. Usually, the most common optoelectronic devices that feature direct conversion between electrons and photons are light-emitting diodes and solar cells.

Amorphous semiconductor materials are emerging materials for optoelectronic applications that are disordered or glassy forms of crystalline semiconductor materials. They have attracted considerable research interest because of the reduction in the physical thickness and the low embodied energy achievable in amorphous semiconductor devices. Popular amorphous semiconductor materials include amorphous Si, organic polymers and hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites.

Nowadays, it has been significantly reported that the use of thick film in semiconductor devices can increase the series resistance of the device and reduce the overall current due to the increase in charge carrier recombination, although thick films can maximize absorption. Therefore, in order to achieve high-performance thin-film semiconductor devices, the optical and electrical properties and applications of semiconductor thin films have attracted considerable research interest.

We would like to invite you to submit your original research to this Special Issue of Coatings, entitled “Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors ”. In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

Organic conjugated thin film;
Inorganic thin film;
Peroskite thin film;
Thin-film light-emitting diodes;
Thin-film solar cells;
Thin-film optical sensors;
Nanostructured thin film in semiconductor devices;
Plasmonic effect in thin film.

Dr. Zhongkai Cheng
Dr. Sheng Bi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

photophysics
photochemistry
thin films
organic semiconductors

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 5552 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Photoconductive Response to Pulsed UV Light of CsPbCl₃ Flexible Thin Films Grown by Magnetron Sputtering

by Mara Bruzzi, Naomi Falsini, Nicola Calisi, Paolo Scardi and Anna Vinattieri

Coatings 2023, 13(6), 1128; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13061128 - 20 Jun 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1071

Abstract

CsPbCl₃ perovskite is attracting increasing interest in ultraviolet (UV) detection due to its optical band gap and superior intrinsic optoelectronic properties. In this study, a novel one-step magnetron sputtering technique was applied for fabricating CsPbCl₃ polycrystalline films on flexible plastic substrates with interdigitated contacts. The photoconductive response of 500 nm and 1 µm thick films to pulsed ultraviolet (UV) light in the 0.1–100 Hz frequency range and intensity of 10–500 W/m² was tested at room temperature. The experimental results demonstrated the good performances of the CsPbCl₃ films in terms of signal stability, fast response to transient signal, detectivity, light dynamic range, and dark current noise for the photodetection of pulsed UV light. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors)

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17 pages, 2970 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Cu₂O Sputtering Power Variation on the Characteristics of Radio Frequency Sputtered p-Type Delafossite CuCrO₂ Thin Films

by Sreeram Sundaresh, Akash Hari Bharath and Kalpathy B. Sundaram

Coatings 2023, 13(2), 395; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13020395 - 9 Feb 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1906

Abstract

For the first time, the effect of Cuprous Oxide (Cu₂O) sputtering power variation on the radio frequency sputtered Copper Chromium Oxide (CuCrO₂) thin films was studied. In this work, the sputtering power of Cr₂O₃ was held constant at 200 W while the sputtering power of the Cu₂O target was varied from 10 to 100 W. The films were subsequently annealed at 650 °C in N₂ ambiance. The effects of Cu₂O sputtering power variation on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the films have been reported in this work. X-ray diffractometer (XRD) study revealed that the single-phase delafossite structure of CuCrO₂ was only obtained at Cu₂O sputtering power of 50 W. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis further established the results of XRD study where Cu in 1+ oxidation state was identified in thin films obtained at 50 W of Cu₂O sputtering power. The optical studies were conducted in this work on all the post-deposition annealed films in the wavelength range of 200–800 nm. The energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) study revealed a near stoichiometric composition ratio of 1:1.06 of Cu:Cr at% obtained in the films sputtered with 50 W of Cu₂O sputtering power. The highest optical transmission of ~81% and the highest optical bandgap of 3.21 eV were observed for single-phase CuCrO₂ thin films. The optical transmission and the optical bandgap were found to decrease with an increase in the Cu₂O sputtering power. The electrical study performed on all the post-deposition annealed films revealed that the lowest resistivity of 0.652 Ω-cm was identified for single-phase CuCrO₂ thin films obtained at 50 W of Cu₂O sputtering power. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors)

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23 pages, 4822 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Annealing Temperature on Radio Frequency Sputtered p-Type Delafossite Copper Chromium Oxide (CuCrO₂) Thin Films and Investigation of Diode Characteristics Forming Transparent pn-Heterojunction

by Sreeram Sundaresh, Akash Hari Bharath and Kalpathy B. Sundaram

Coatings 2023, 13(2), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13020263 - 22 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2398

Abstract

For the first time, the deposition of CuCrO₂ thin films was carried out using a dual-target RF magnetron sputtering technique using Cu₂O and Cr₂O₃ targets. The deposited films were subsequently annealed in N₂ ambiance from 600–900 °C. This work reports that the electrical, optical, structural, and morphological properties of CuCrO₂ thin films are significantly affected due to the variation in the annealing temperature. XRD analysis confirms the presence of single-phase CuCrO₂ in the films annealed at 650 °C. The presence of Cu in the 1+ oxidation state in the phase pure CuCrO₂ thin films was confirmed through XPS analysis. Further, through XPS analysis, the oxidation states of Cu and Cr, the full-width half maximum (FWHM), the peak positions, and their respective binding energies have been elucidated. SEM analysis confirms the promotion of nanocrystalline growth in the thin films as the annealing temperature was increased from 600 °C. The average grain size increased from 40.22 nm to 105.31 nm as the annealing temperature was increased from 600 to 900 °C. Optical studies conducted in the wavelength range of 200 nm to 800 nm revealed a decrease in the optical transmission and optical bandgap with an increase in the annealing temperature. The highest optical transmission of ~81% and an optical bandgap of 3.21 eV were obtained for the films depicting the delafossite nature of CuCrO₂. The optical bandgap was found to vary between 3.16 eV and 3.74 eV for the films studied in this research. The lowest resistivity of 0.652 Ω cm was obtained for the films annealed at 650 °C. Transparent heterojunction diodes involving p-type delafossite copper chromium oxide (CuCrO₂) and n-type indium tin oxide (ITO) were fabricated. The best diode depicted a cut-in voltage of 0.85 V, a very low leakage current of 1.24 x 10-8, an ideality factor of 4.13, and a rectification ratio of 2375. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors)

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Review

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34 pages, 10055 KiB

Open AccessReview

Excitation Threshold Reduction Techniques for Organic Semiconductor Lasers: A Review

by Yao Wang, Xu Han, Linze Jin, Yuhui Meng, Chengming Jiang, Kyeiwaa Asare-Yeboah, Zhengran He and Sheng Bi

Coatings 2023, 13(10), 1815; https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13101815 - 23 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1479

Abstract

Organic semiconductor lasers have shown great application potential in various fields, such as low-cost sensing, high-performance lighting and display, and lab-on-a-chip devices. Since the introduction of organic lasers in the 1960s, research on semiconductor laser devices has expanded to include various materials and structures. The organic laser has attracted much attention due to its wide range of emission spectrum and simple synthesis and processing. Researchers constantly pursue the goal of using organic semiconductors to fabricate low-threshold thin-film organic laser devices while retaining the characteristics of a wide luminescence spectrum of organic materials, simple and portable structure, and low cost. However, organic semiconductor lasers face challenges due to material stability under optical pumping and large optical losses under electrical pumping, making commercialization difficult. Many scholars have put great efforts into enhancing the performance of materials and optimizing the structure to minimize the threshold of organic semiconductor lasers. Herein, based on the basic principles of organic lasers, the main factors affecting the excitation threshold are summarized. A comprehensive analysis of the relevant factors and threshold conditions is performed, considering both positive and negative aspects of modal gain and modal loss that need to be addressed. We expect to provide a wide range of ideas for reducing the threshold of organic lasers and offer theoretical guidance for the practical industrial production of organic lasers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical and Electrical Properties and Applications of Semiconductors)

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