Self-assembled monolayers and surface-initiated polymer, or polymer brushes, have attracted attention as they form dense layers with much higher structural order than bulk or solution polymers. Another field of research which has emerged over the last two decades is the field of organic and polymer electronics. In this field molecular order and surface modification are of major influence on the device performance, hence that both self-assembled monolayers as polymer brushes have been investigated to find applications in organic electronic devices. After an introduction into the field self-assembled monolayers, polymer brushes and organic electronics, the first part of this thesis focusses on three applications of surface modification techniques for applications in devices. Alignment of the active material is crucial for high mobilities in organic electronics. Chapter 2 discusses the synthesis of a liquid crystalline surface-initiated polymer and its application to induce strong homeotropic alignment. The alignment is homogeneous over large areas and can be patterned by combining the polymerization with soft lithographic techniques. Mobilities of organic electronic materials can also be strongly influenced by dopants in the material. In field-effect transistors the positioning of the dopant is thought to be crucial, as the conductance predominantly takes place in only a small channel near the dielectric interface. In chapter 3 dopant functionalized monolayers and polymer brushes are presented which enable the localized deposition of dopants in the channel of organic transistors. It is shown that the mobility of charges and hence the device performance is affected by the introduction of this dopant layer. Polymer brushes have been suggested for the fabrication of highly ordered semiconducting polymers. In chapter 4 the use of a thiophene functionalized polymer brush is shown, that can be used as a template for the subsequent growth of highly conjugated surface grafted polythiophene layers. Thick polythiophene layers are obtained, that are low in roughness and show photoluminescence and polychromism upon doping. The second part (chapter 5 and 6) of this thesis presents new techniques for surface polymerizations. It is attractive to investigate reduction of reactor volume for polymer brush growth. Chapter 5 discusses a method to achieve volume reduction by back-filling the superfluous volume with beads. It is found that this influences the polymerization kinetics significantly. The combined advantages of less volume and enhanced reaction speeds enable reduction of the total amount of monomer needed by up to 90%. Chapter 6 presents a controlled way to convert initiators for atom transfer radical polymerization into initiators for nitroxide mediated polymerization. In this way mixed polymer brushes and block co-polymer brushes become accessible. This combination makes it an attractive tool to fabricate complex polymer architectures. The technologies used in this thesis show that the synthesis of polymer brushes enable the fabrication of complex architectures without the wastes normally associated with surface-initiated polymers. Combined with several functionalized polymer brushes with properties that enhance order, influence mobility or serve as template for the growth of surface attached conjugated polymers this shows the high potential for the application of surface-initiated polymers in organic electronics.

In recent years, the use of first-principles based atomistic modeling technique has become extremely popular to gain better insights on the various locally modulated electronic properties of nano materials and structures. Atomistic modeling offers the benefit of predicting crystal structures, visualizing orbital distribution and electron density, as well as understanding material properties which are hard to access experimentally. The single layer MoS2 has emerged as a suitable choice for the next generation nano devices, owing to its distinctive electrical, optical and mechanical properties like, better electrostatics, increased photo luminescence, higher mechanical flexibility, etc. The realization of decananometer scale digital switches with the single layer MoS2 as the channel may provide many significant advantages such as, high On/Off current ratio, excellent electrostatic control of the gate, low leakage, etc. However, there are quite a few critical issues such as, forming low resistance source/drain contacts, achieving higher effective mobility, ensuring large scale controlled growth, etc. which need to be addressed for successful implementation of the atomically thin transistors in integrated circuits. Recent experimental demonstration showing the coexistence of metallic and semiconducting phases in the same monolayer MoS2, has attracted much attention for its use in ultra-low contact resistance-MoS2 transistors. Howbeit, the electronic structures of the metallic-to-semiconducting phase boundaries, which appear to dictate the carrier injection in such transistors, are not yet well understood. In this work, we first develop the geometrically optimized atomistic models of the 2H-1T′ hetero-phase structures with two distinct phase boundaries, β and γ. We then apply density functional theory to calculate the electronic structures for those optimized geometries. Furthermore, we employ non equilibrium Green’s function formalism to evaluate the transmission spectra and the local density of states in order to assess the Schottky barrier nature of the phase boundaries. Nonetheless, the symmetry of the source-channel and drain-channel junction, is a unique property of a metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET), which needs to be preserved while realizing sub-10 nm channel length devices using advanced technology. Employing experimental-findings-driven atomistic modeling technique, we demonstrate that such symmetry might not be preserved in an atomically thin phase-engineered MoS2- based MOSFET. It originates from the two distinct atomic patterns at phase boundaries (β and β*) when the semiconducting phase (channel) is sandwiched between the two metallic phases (source and drain). Next, using first principles based quantum transport calculations we demonstrate that due to the clusterization of “Mo” atoms in 1T′ MoS2, the transmission along the zigzag direction is significantly higher than that in the armchair direction. Moreover, to achieve excellent impedance matching with various metal contacts (such as, “Au”, “Pd”, etc.), we further develop the atomistic models of metal-1T′ MoS2 edge contact geometries and compute their resistance values. Other than the charge carrier transport, analysing the heat transport across the channel is also crucial in designing the ultra-thin next generation transistors. Hence, in this thesis work, we have investigated the electro-thermal transport properties of single layer MoS2, in quasi ballistic regime. Besides the perfect monolayer in its pristine form, we have also considered various line defects which have been experimentally observed in mechanically exfoliated MoS2 samples. Furthermore, a comprehensive study on the phonon thermal conductivity of a suspended monolayer MoS2, has been incorporated in this thesis. The studies presented in this thesis could be useful for understanding the carrier transport in atomically thin devices and designing the ultra-thin next generation transistors.

I) Introduction p-Conjugated polymers inherently combine electronic properties of inorganic semiconductor crystals and material characteristics of organic plastics due to their special molecular design. This unique combination has led to developing new unconventional optoelectronic technologies and, further, resulted in the evolution of semiconducting polymers (SCPs) as fundamental components for novel electronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic solar cells (OSCs).[1–5] Moreover, the material flexibility, capability for thin-film formation, and solution processibility additionally allow utilizing modern printing technologies for the large-scale fabrication of flexible, light-weight organic electronics. This especially enables to significantly increase the production speed and, moreover, to drastically reduce the costs per unit.[6, 7] In particular, transistors are the most important elements in modern functional electronic devices because of acting as electronic switches in logic circuits or in displays to control pixels. However, due to molecular arrangement and interactions, the electronic performance of SCPs cannot compete with the one of monocrystalline silicon which is used in state-of-the-art high-performance microtechnology.[5, 8] Nonetheless, intensive and continuing efforts of scientists focused on improving the performance of OFETs, with the special focus on the charge carrier mobility, by optimizing the polymer structure, processing conditions and OFET device architecture. By this, it was possible to identify crucial relationships between polymer structure, optoelectronic properties, microstructure, and OFET performance.[8] Nowadays, the interdisciplinary scientific success is represented by high-performance SCPs with charge carrier mobilities exceeding the value of amorphous silicon.[3, 9] However, further research is essential to enable developing the next generation of electronic devices for application in healthcare, safety technology, transportation, and communication. II) Objective and Results Within the scope of this doctoral thesis, current high-performance p-conjugated SCPs should be studied comprehensively to improve the present understanding about the interdependency between molecular structure, material properties and charge transport. Therefore, the extensive research approaches focused on different key aspects of high charge carrier mobility polymers for organic transistors. The performed investigations comprised the impact of, first, novel design concepts, second, precise structural modifications and, third, synthetic and processing conditions and led to the major findings listed below. 1. The design concept of tuning the p-conjugation length allows to gradually modulate physical material properties and demonstrates that a strong localization of frontier molecular orbitals in combination with a high degree of thin-film ordering can provide a favorable platform for charge transport in p-conjugated semiconducting polymers.[1] 2. The replacement of thiophene units with thiazoles in naphthalene diimide-based p- conjugated polymers allows to increase interchain interactions and to lower frontier molecular orbitals. This compensates the potentially detrimental enhancement of backbone torsion and drives the charge transport to unipolar electron transport, whereas mobility values are partially comparable with those of the respective thiophene containing analogs. 3. p-Conjugated diketopyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-based copolymers can be synthesized within fifteen minutes what, in combination with avoiding aqueous washings and optimizing processing conditions, allowed an increase in morphological and energetic order and, thus, improved the charge transport properties significantly. III) Conclusion The key findings of this doctoral thesis provide new significant insights into important aspects of designing, synthesizing and processing high charge carrier mobility polymers. By this, they can guide future research to further improve the performance of organic electronic devices - decisive for driving the development and fabrication of smart, functional and wearable next-generation electronics. References [1] T. Erdmann, S. Fabiano, B. Milián-Medina, D. Hanifi, Z. Chen, M. Berggren, J. Gierschner, A. Salleo, A. Kiriy, B. Voit, A. Facchetti, Advanced Materials 2016, 28 (41), 9169–9174, DOI:10.1002/adma.201602923. [2] Y. Karpov, T. Erdmann, I. Raguzin, M. Al-Hussein, M. Binner, U. Lappan, M. Stamm, K. L. Gerasimov, T. Beryozkina, V. Bakulev, D. V. Anokhin, D. A. Ivanov, F. Günther, S. Gemming, G. Seifert, B. Voit, R. Di Pietro, A. Kiriy, Advanced Materials 2016, 28 (28), 6003–6010, DOI:10.1002/adma.201506295. [3] A. Facchetti, Chemistry of Materials 2011, 23 (3), 733–758, DOI:10.1021/cm102419z. [4] A. J. Heeger, Chemical Society Reviews 2010, 39, 2354–2371, DOI:10.1039/B914956M. [5] H. Klauk, Chemical Society Reviews 2010, 39, 2643–2666, DOI:10.1039/B909902F. [6] S. G. Bucella, A. Luzio, E. Gann, L. Thomsen, C. R. McNeill, G. Pace, A. Perinot, Z. Chen, A. Facchetti, M. Caironi, Nature Communications 2015, 6, 8394, DOI:10.1038/ncomms9394. [7] H. Sirringhaus, T. Kawase, R. H. Friend, T. Shimoda, M. Inbasekaran, W. Wu, E. P. Woo, Science 2000, 290 (5499), 2123–2126, DOI:10.1126/science.290.5499.2123. [8] D. Venkateshvaran, M. Nikolka, A. Sadhanala, V. Lemaur, M. Zelazny, M. Kepa, M. Hurhangee, A. J. Kronemeijer, V. Pecunia, I. Nasrallah, I. Romanov, K. Broch, I. McCulloch, D. Emin, Y. Olivier, J. Cornil, D. Beljonne, H. Sirringhaus, Nature 2014, 515 (7527), 384–388, DOI:10.1038/nature13854. [9] S. Holliday, J. E. Donaghey, I. McCulloch, Chemistry of Materials 2014, 26 (1), 647–663, DOI: 10.1021/cm402421p.

Les travaux effectués dans le cadre de la thèse de doctorat, ont porté sur la mesure de la mobilité des porteurs de charge dans des semi-conducteurs organiques. La thèse de doctorat a été réalisée en "cotutelle" dans le cadre du programme franco-polonais entre le Département de Chimie de l'Université de Technologie de Wroclaw et les Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères de l'Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris. Certains des résultats présentés ont été obtenus dans le cadre d'un stage scientifique dans la groupe du prof. Jeong Weon Wu à l'Ewha Womans University, Séoul, Corée du Sud. Cette thèse se compose de deux parties principales, une théoriques et expérimentales. Dans le premier, je décris matériaux semi-conducteurs organiques et les techniques de mesure, que je utilisé au cours de la thèse. La partie expérimentale est composé de cinq chapitres. En raison du fait que les molécules recherchées diffèrent fortement dans leurs structures et leurs propriétés, je décidai de présenter chaque chapitre dans la forme d'un article scientifique. La caractéristique commune de toutes les molécules étudiées est la possibilité de l'auto-organisation supramoléculaire dans les structures de cristaux liquides. Je étudié composés accepteurs-donneurs, qui peut être comprise comme matériaux de type p et n semi-conducteur. Au cours de ma thèse j'ai utilisé la technique de temps de vol et mesuré les caractéristiques courant-tension de transistor à effet de champ organique pour déterminer la mobilité des porteurs des charges dans semi-conducteurs organiques. Enfin, je payé beaucoup d'attention aux techniques spectroscopiques, y compris d'absorption femtoseconde résolue en temps. / I have carried out my PhD Thesis within the framework of a Polish-French “cotutelle” program, between Chemistry Department of Wroclaw University of Technology and Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères of Université Pierre et Marie Curie. The Polish advisor of this work was Prof. Marek Samoć and the French advisor was Prof. André Jean Attias. A part of results described in this Thesis was obtained during a research internship in a group of Prof. Jeong Weon Wu from Ewha Womans University in South Korea. This Thesis is composed of two main parts, a theoretical and experimental. In the former I describe organic semiconducting materials and the measurement techniques, which I utilized during the PhD work. The experimental part is composed of five chapters. Due to the fact that the investigated molecules differed strongly in their structures and properties, I decided to present every chapter within a form of a scientific article. The common feature of all explored molecules is the possibility of supramolecular self organization into liquid crystalline structures, and the opportunity of utilizing these materials in organic electronics and optoelectronics. Among these molecules, both oligomers and polymers can be distinguished. I studied also donor acceptor compounds, which in terms of organic electronics can be understood as materials with p and n type semiconducting character. During my PhD Thesis I used Time-of-Flight technique and measured current voltage characteristics of organic field effect transistor (OFET) to determine charge carriers mobility in organic semiconductor. Finally, I paid a lot of attention to the spectroscopic techniques, including fs transient absorption.

In this work synthesis of structure cobaltites based on Ca-Co-O system is discussed. As major way of synthesis was chosen citric acid method. The document is devided into theoretical and experimental part and also into discussion of observed results. Main focus of literary research is general utilization and function of thermoelectric materials, related thermoeletric effects according to structural defects in crystals. Also topic of cobaltite ceramics is described. Due to the fact that calcium-cobalt oxides are conductive, their use is point of interest in high-temperature and energy applications. During experiments differential thermal and thermogravimetric analysis (TG-DTA), X-Ray diffraction, heat microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used.

I) Introduction p-Conjugated polymers inherently combine electronic properties of inorganic semiconductor crystals and material characteristics of organic plastics due to their special molecular design. This unique combination has led to developing new unconventional optoelectronic technologies and, further, resulted in the evolution of semiconducting polymers (SCPs) as fundamental components for novel electronic devices, such as organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic solar cells (OSCs).[1–5] Moreover, the material flexibility, capability for thin-film formation, and solution processibility additionally allow utilizing modern printing technologies for the large-scale fabrication of flexible, light-weight organic electronics. This especially enables to significantly increase the production speed and, moreover, to drastically reduce the costs per unit.[6, 7] In particular, transistors are the most important elements in modern functional electronic devices because of acting as electronic switches in logic circuits or in displays to control pixels. However, due to molecular arrangement and interactions, the electronic performance of SCPs cannot compete with the one of monocrystalline silicon which is used in state-of-the-art high-performance microtechnology.[5, 8] Nonetheless, intensive and continuing efforts of scientists focused on improving the performance of OFETs, with the special focus on the charge carrier mobility, by optimizing the polymer structure, processing conditions and OFET device architecture. By this, it was possible to identify crucial relationships between polymer structure, optoelectronic properties, microstructure, and OFET performance.[8] Nowadays, the interdisciplinary scientific success is represented by high-performance SCPs with charge carrier mobilities exceeding the value of amorphous silicon.[3, 9] However, further research is essential to enable developing the next generation of electronic devices for application in healthcare, safety technology, transportation, and communication. II) Objective and Results Within the scope of this doctoral thesis, current high-performance p-conjugated SCPs should be studied comprehensively to improve the present understanding about the interdependency between molecular structure, material properties and charge transport. Therefore, the extensive research approaches focused on different key aspects of high charge carrier mobility polymers for organic transistors. The performed investigations comprised the impact of, first, novel design concepts, second, precise structural modifications and, third, synthetic and processing conditions and led to the major findings listed below. 1. The design concept of tuning the p-conjugation length allows to gradually modulate physical material properties and demonstrates that a strong localization of frontier molecular orbitals in combination with a high degree of thin-film ordering can provide a favorable platform for charge transport in p-conjugated semiconducting polymers.[1] 2. The replacement of thiophene units with thiazoles in naphthalene diimide-based p- conjugated polymers allows to increase interchain interactions and to lower frontier molecular orbitals. This compensates the potentially detrimental enhancement of backbone torsion and drives the charge transport to unipolar electron transport, whereas mobility values are partially comparable with those of the respective thiophene containing analogs. 3. p-Conjugated diketopyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-based copolymers can be synthesized within fifteen minutes what, in combination with avoiding aqueous washings and optimizing processing conditions, allowed an increase in morphological and energetic order and, thus, improved the charge transport properties significantly. III) Conclusion The key findings of this doctoral thesis provide new significant insights into important aspects of designing, synthesizing and processing high charge carrier mobility polymers. By this, they can guide future research to further improve the performance of organic electronic devices - decisive for driving the development and fabrication of smart, functional and wearable next-generation electronics. References [1] T. Erdmann, S. Fabiano, B. Milián-Medina, D. Hanifi, Z. Chen, M. Berggren, J. Gierschner, A. Salleo, A. Kiriy, B. Voit, A. Facchetti, Advanced Materials 2016, 28 (41), 9169–9174, DOI:10.1002/adma.201602923. [2] Y. Karpov, T. Erdmann, I. Raguzin, M. Al-Hussein, M. Binner, U. Lappan, M. Stamm, K. L. Gerasimov, T. Beryozkina, V. Bakulev, D. V. Anokhin, D. A. Ivanov, F. Günther, S. Gemming, G. Seifert, B. Voit, R. Di Pietro, A. Kiriy, Advanced Materials 2016, 28 (28), 6003–6010, DOI:10.1002/adma.201506295. [3] A. Facchetti, Chemistry of Materials 2011, 23 (3), 733–758, DOI:10.1021/cm102419z. [4] A. J. Heeger, Chemical Society Reviews 2010, 39, 2354–2371, DOI:10.1039/B914956M. [5] H. Klauk, Chemical Society Reviews 2010, 39, 2643–2666, DOI:10.1039/B909902F. [6] S. G. Bucella, A. Luzio, E. Gann, L. Thomsen, C. R. McNeill, G. Pace, A. Perinot, Z. Chen, A. Facchetti, M. Caironi, Nature Communications 2015, 6, 8394, DOI:10.1038/ncomms9394. [7] H. Sirringhaus, T. Kawase, R. H. Friend, T. Shimoda, M. Inbasekaran, W. Wu, E. P. Woo, Science 2000, 290 (5499), 2123–2126, DOI:10.1126/science.290.5499.2123. [8] D. Venkateshvaran, M. Nikolka, A. Sadhanala, V. Lemaur, M. Zelazny, M. Kepa, M. Hurhangee, A. J. Kronemeijer, V. Pecunia, I. Nasrallah, I. Romanov, K. Broch, I. McCulloch, D. Emin, Y. Olivier, J. Cornil, D. Beljonne, H. Sirringhaus, Nature 2014, 515 (7527), 384–388, DOI:10.1038/nature13854. [9] S. Holliday, J. E. Donaghey, I. McCulloch, Chemistry of Materials 2014, 26 (1), 647–663, DOI: 10.1021/cm402421p.

Failure analysis and optimization of semiconducting devices request knowledge of their electrical properties. To meet the demands of today’s semiconductor industry, an electrical nanometrology technique is required which provides quantitative information about the doping profile and which enables scans with a lateral resolution in the sub-10 nm range. In the presented work it is shown that Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) is a very promising electrical nanometrology technique to face this challenge. The technical and physical aspects of KPFM measurements on semiconductors required for the correct interpretation of the detected KPFM bias are discussed. A new KPFM model is developed which enables the quantitative correlation between the probed KPFM bias and the dopant concentration in the investigated semiconducting sample. Quantitative dopant profiling by means of the new KPFM model is demonstrated by the example of differently structured, n- and p-type doped silicon. Additionally, the transport of charge carriers during KPFM measurements, in particular in the presence of intrinsic electric fields due to vertical and horizontal pn junctions as well as due to surface space charge regions, is discussed. Detailed investigations show that transport of charge carriers in the semiconducting sample is a crucial aspect and has to be taken into account when aiming for a quantitative evaluation of the probed KPFM bias.

Organic semiconductors have witnessed a prolific boom for their potential in the manufacturing of lightweight, flexible, and even biocompatible electronics. One of the fields of research that has yet to benefit from organic semiconductors is high temperature electronics. The lightweight nature and robust processability is attractive for applications such as aerospace engineering, which require high temperature stability, but little has been reported on taking such a leap because charge transport is temperature dependent and commonly unstable at elevated temperatures in organics. Historically, mechanistic studies have been bound to low temperature regimes where structural disorders are minimal in most materials. Discussed here is a blending approach to render semiconducting polymer thin films thermally stable in unprecedented operation temperature ranges for organic materials. We found that by utilizing highly rigid host materials, semiconducting polymer domains could be confined, thus improving their molecular and microstructural ordering, and a thermally stable charge transport could be realized up to 220°C. With this blending approach, all-plastic high temperature electronics that are extremely stable could also be demonstrated. In efforts to establish a universal route towards forming thermally stable semiconducting blends, we found that the molecular weight of conjugated polymer plays a crucial role on the miscibility of the blends. Finally, we found that the choice of the host matrix ought to consider the charge trapping nature of the insulator.<br>

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