This work aims at improving the understanding of the fundamental physics behind molecular doping of organic semiconductors, being a requirement for efficient devices like organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and organic photovoltaic cells (OPV). The underlying physics is studied by electrical conductivity and thermoelectrical Seebeck measurements and the influences of doping concentration and temperature are investigated. Thin doped layers are prepared in vacuum by thermal co-evaporation of host and dopant molecules and measured in-situ. The fullerene C60, known for its high electron mobility, is chosen as host for five different n-dopants. Two strongly ionizing air-sensitive molecules (Cr2(hpp)4 and W2(hpp)4) and three air-stable precursor compounds (AOB, DMBI-POH and o-MeO-DMBI-I) which form the active dopants upon deposition are studied to compare their doping mechanism. High conductivities are achieved, with a maximum of 10.9 S/cm. Investigating the sample degradation by air-exposure, a method for regeneration is proposed, which allows for device processing steps under ambient conditions, greatly enhancing device fabrication possibilities. Various material combinations for p-doping are compared to study the influence of the molecular energy levels of host (MeO-TPD and BF-DPB) and dopant (F6-TCNNQ and C60F36). Corrections for the only estimated literature values for the dopant levels are proposed. Furthermore, the model system of similar-sized host pentacene and dopant F4-TCNQ is studied and compared to theoretical predictions. Finally, a model is developed that allows for estimating charge carrier mobility, density of free charge carriers, doping efficiency, as well as the transport level position from combining conductivity and Seebeck data.:1 Introduction 2 Fundamentals of Organic Semiconductors 2.1 Conventional Semiconductors 2.2 Organic Semiconductors 2.3 Seebeck Effect 2.4 Correlation of Seebeck Coefficient and Charge Carrier Density 3 Experimental 3.1 Seebeck Setup 3.2 Materials 4 Air-Sensitive n-Dopants in C60 4.1 Conductivity 4.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 4.3 Morphology 4.4 Degradation 4.5 Conclusion 5 Air-Stable n-Dopants in C60 5.1 Conductivity 5.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 5.3 Morphology 5.4 Conclusion for AOB and DMBI-POH 5.5 o-MeO-DMBI-I 6 p-Dopants in Amorphous Hosts 6.1 Conductivity 6.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 6.3 Degradation 6.4 Conclusion 7 Pentacene p-Doped by F4-TCNQ 7.1 Conductivity Changes after Preparation 7.2 Relation of Conductivity to Doping Concentration 7.3 Comparison of Seebeck Energy and Activation Energy 7.4 Conclusion 8 Estimating the Doping Efficiency and the Mobility 8.1 Lower Limit of the Mobility 8.2 Lower Limit of the Doping Efficiency 8.3 Conclusions from Seebeck Measurements 8.4 Assuming a Constant Transport Level 8.5 Applying the Models to p-Doped Data 8.6 Conclusion 9 Summary and Outlook 9.1 Summary 9.2 Outlook / Diese Arbeit untersucht organische Halbleiter und den Einfluss von molekularer Dotierung auf deren elektrische Eigenschaften, mit dem Ziel effizientere Bauelemente wie organische Leuchtdioden oder Solarzellen zu ermöglichen. Mittels Leitfähigkeitsuntersuchungen sowie thermoelektrischen Seebeck-Messungen werden die Einflüsse der Dotierkonzentration sowie der Temperatur auf die elektrischen Eigenschaften dünner dotierter Schichten analysiert. Das Abscheiden der Schichten durch Koverdampfen im Vakuum ermöglicht eine in-situ Analyse. Das Fulleren C60, bekannt für besonders hohe Elektronenbeweglichkeit, wird als Wirt für fünf verschieden n-Dotanden, zwei extrem stark ionisierende luftreaktive (Cr2(hpp)4 und W2(hpp)4) sowie drei luftstabile (AOB, DMBI-POH und o-MeO-DMBI-I), verwendet. Dies ermöglicht Schlüsse auf die unterschiedlichen zugrunde liegenden Dotiermechanismen und das Erreichen von Leitfähigkeiten von bis zu 10.9 S/cm. Für einen der luftreaktiven Dotanden wird die Probendegradation an Luft untersucht und eine Regenerationsmethode aufgezeigt, die Prozessierungsschritte in Luft erlaubt und somit entscheidend für zukünftige Bauelementfertigung sein könnte. Verschiedene p-dotierte Materialkombinationen werden untersucht, um den Einfluss der molekularen Energieniveaus von Wirt (MeO-TPD und BF-DPB) und Dotand (F6-TCNNQ und C60F36) auf die Dotierung zu studieren. Dies ermöglicht Schlussfolgerungen auf die in der Literatur bisher nur abgeschätzten Energieniveaus dieser Dotanden. Ferner werden die Eigenschaften des bereits theoretisch modellierten Paares Pentacen und F4-TCNQ mit den Vorhersagen verglichen und die Abweichungen diskutiert. Abschießend wird ein Modell entwickelt, das die Abschätzung von Dotiereffizienz, Ladungsträgerkonzentration, Ladungsträgerbeweglichkeit sowie der Position des Transportniveaus aus Leitfähigkeits- und Seebeck-Messungen erlaubt.:1 Introduction 2 Fundamentals of Organic Semiconductors 2.1 Conventional Semiconductors 2.2 Organic Semiconductors 2.3 Seebeck Effect 2.4 Correlation of Seebeck Coefficient and Charge Carrier Density 3 Experimental 3.1 Seebeck Setup 3.2 Materials 4 Air-Sensitive n-Dopants in C60 4.1 Conductivity 4.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 4.3 Morphology 4.4 Degradation 4.5 Conclusion 5 Air-Stable n-Dopants in C60 5.1 Conductivity 5.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 5.3 Morphology 5.4 Conclusion for AOB and DMBI-POH 5.5 o-MeO-DMBI-I 6 p-Dopants in Amorphous Hosts 6.1 Conductivity 6.2 Thermoelectric Measurements 6.3 Degradation 6.4 Conclusion 7 Pentacene p-Doped by F4-TCNQ 7.1 Conductivity Changes after Preparation 7.2 Relation of Conductivity to Doping Concentration 7.3 Comparison of Seebeck Energy and Activation Energy 7.4 Conclusion 8 Estimating the Doping Efficiency and the Mobility 8.1 Lower Limit of the Mobility 8.2 Lower Limit of the Doping Efficiency 8.3 Conclusions from Seebeck Measurements 8.4 Assuming a Constant Transport Level 8.5 Applying the Models to p-Doped Data 8.6 Conclusion 9 Summary and Outlook 9.1 Summary 9.2 Outlook

CsPbBr₃ is an inorganic perovskite material that is promising for light-emitting applications. Such applications are known to benefit from an island-type active layer structure, which enhances the device’s light emission efficiency. Here, the impact of the environment on the island formation in thermally deposited bilayers of CsPbBr₃/LiBr is investigated. It is demonstrated that the island formation occurs only in humid environments, leading to an enhancement of the photoluminescence quantum yield by a factor of 350. Timeresolved grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering experiments document the island growth process and reveal that the LiBr has already changed the perovskite crystal orientation prior to the island formation.

A comprehensive study of the optical properties of CsPbBr₃ perovskite multiple quantum wells (MQW) with organic barrier layers is presented. Quantum confinement is observed by a blue-shift in absorption and emission spectra with decreasing well width and agrees well with simulations of the confinement energies. A large increase of emission intensity with thinner layers is observed, with a photoluminescence quantum yield up to 32 times higher than that of bulk layers. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) measurements show very low thresholds down to 7.3 μJ cm−² for a perovskite thickness of 8.7 nm, significantly lower than previously observed for CsPbBr₃ thin-films. With their increased photoluminescence efficiency and low ASE thresholds, MQW structures with CsPbBr₃ are excellent candidates for high-efficiency perovskite-based LEDs and lasers.

This thesis describes the deposition of thin films of titanium oxide and Magnéli phases of titanium oxide by atomic layer deposition (ALD) using a novel β-ketoesterate precursor. Titanium oxide is a promising candidate for the high-k dielectric gate oxide layer for CMOS devices in microelectronic circuits. The Magnéli phases of titanium oxide are difficult to grow and stabilize, especially in the thin film form, and have useful properties. The thin film deposition of oxides by CVD/ALD requires suitable precursors, which are often metalorganic complexes. The estimation of vapour pressure using thermogravimetry is described, and employed, using an approach based on the Langmuir equation. This data is important for the evaluation of the suitability of these complexes as CVD precursors. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the topics that will be discussed in this thesis. Part one of the thesis deals with the synthesis, characterization, and studies of the vapour pressure and partial pressures of the precursors for CVD. This part comprises of the second, third and fourth chapter. The second chapter deals with the synthesis and characterization of the various metalorganic complexes that have been synthesized and characterized to evaluate their suitability as precursors for CVD. The third chapter describes the derivation of vapour pressure of precursors for CVD and ALD, from rising temperature thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data, using the Langmuir equation. The fourth chapter deals with the determination of partial pressure of CVD precursors using data from low-pressure thermogravimetry. Part Two of the thesis reports the deposition of titanium oxide thin films by ALD, and the detailed investigation of their properties, for application as high-k dielectric materials. Chapters five, six and seven constitute this part. The fifth chapter deals with the deposition of titanium oxide thin films by ALD. Chapter six describes the electrical characterization of the thin films of titanium oxide, for applications as high-k dielectric gate oxide layers for CMOS circuits. In the seventh chapter, the deposition of Magnéli phases of titanium by ALD is described. The dielectric properties of the films are studied.

Organic semiconductors show promise to yield a novel class of bendable electronic devices, and much research efforts have focused on the optimization of these films for device performance. It is well known that the structure of organic films has a large influence over the electronic properties. In particular, the carrier mobility is often highly anisotropic, and domain boundaries have a detrimental effect on charge transport. Therefore the domain structure and lattice orientation are of particular interest. However, little is known about the domain structure of organic films, and techniques to study these properties have only begun to emerge in recent years. In this thesis, we apply two experimental techniques, Grazing-Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GIXD) and Lateral Force Microscopy (LFM), toward studying the lattice and domain structure of tetracene films grown on the silicon(001)-monohydride surface. We describe the necessary steps toward optimizing the sensitivity of these techniques to the domain structure. Results show that the crystalline tetracene films form a layered morphology in which the a-b plane lies parallel to the substrate surface. The film lattice structure is similar to bulk tetracene, and the lattice is confined to two orthogonal orientations, forming a partially-commensurate relationship with the substrate surface lattice along the film 'a' axis. LFM images reveal two types of polycrystalline domains. The first type ("major domains") are tens of microns in size, and are classified by their lattice orientation. They are subdivided into the second type ("sub-domains"), which range from 0.1 to 5um in size, and are argued to represent regions of uniform molecular tilt direction. The GIXD data show that the single-crystal domains which comprise these two larger domain types are anisotropic in size, being up to two times longer along the film 'b' axis than along 'a'. The single-crystal domains range from 0.05 to 0.2um in size, depending on lattice orientation and film thickness. The mathematical basis for these single-crystal domain size calculations is presented. The single-crystal domain sizes are thickness-dependent, and are two orders of magnitude smaller than a typical surface island observed in atomic-force microscopy (AFM) topographs. Substrate steps can also significantly influence the film structure by inducing boundaries in the single-crystal domains and sub-domains, but not in the major domains. This detailed knowledge of the domain structure of organic thin-films may assist in our understanding of the factors which affect charge transport in thin films, and may help to direct research efforts in optimizing the film structure for device performance. / Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT).