Three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructures, method of making, and their application in quantum dot-polymer nanocomposite photodetectors and photovoltaics

• US 8,450,138 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2012
• Issued: 05/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InVisage Technologies, Inc. (Apple Inc.), Ethan Klem, Ian Howard, Jason Clifford
• Original Assignee: InVisage Technologies, Inc. (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Sargent, Edward, Levina, Larissa, Konstantatos, Gerasimos, Cyr, Paul, McDonald, Steven Ashworth, Zhang, Shiguo
• Primary Examiner(s): Stark, Jarrett
• Assistant Examiner(s): TOBERGTE, NICHOLAS J
• Application Number:
  US13/368,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20120208315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 475 Days
• Field of Search: 438/82, 438/962, 257/441, 257/465, 257/466, 136/82
• US Class Current: 438/82
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 10/00 Nanotechnology for information processing, storage or transmission, e.g. quantum computing or single electron logic
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 40/00 Manufacture or treatment of nanostructures
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02543 Phosphides
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/0256 Selenides
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02568 Chalcogenide semiconducting materials not being oxides, e.g. ternary compounds
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02601 Nanoparticles fullerenes H10K85/211
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/0352 characterised by their shape or by the shapes, relative sizes or disposition of the semiconductor regions
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/466 Lateral bottom-gate IGFETs comprising only a single gate
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 10/488 the channel region comprising a layer of composite material having interpenetrating or embedded materials, e.g. a mixture of donor and acceptor moieties, that form a bulk heterojunction
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/10 comprising heterojunctions between organic semiconductors and inorganic semiconductors
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/30 comprising bulk heterojunctions, e.g. interpenetrating networks of donor and acceptor material domains
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 30/35 comprising inorganic nanostructures, e.g. CdSe nanoparticles
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 39/30 Devices controlled by radiation
• CPC Class Codes: H10K 85/114 Poly-phenylenevinylene; Derivatives thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/549 Organic PV cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 70/50 Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/773 Nanoparticle, i.e. structure having three dimensions of 100 nm or less
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/774 Exhibiting three-dimensional carrier confinement, e.g. quantum dots
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/783 Organic host/matrix, e.g. lipid
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/784 Electrically conducting, semi-conducting, or semi-insulating host material
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/954 : Of radiant energy

Abstract

Provided herein are embodiments of a three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure, a method of producing same, and the application of this structure. The three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure includes two interpenetrating layers which are spatially continuous, include only protrusions or peninsulas, and have no islands. The method of producing the three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure includes forming an essentially planar continuous bottom layer of a first material; forming a layer of this first material on top of the bottom layer that is textured to produce protrusions for subsequent interpenetration with a second material, coating this second material onto this structure, and forming a coating with the second material that ensures that only the second material is contacted by subsequent layer. One of the materials includes visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles, and one of materials is a hole conductor and the other is an electron conductor.

Claims

1. A method of producing a light-sensing system on a semiconductor substrate having at least one integrated circuit device defined thereon, the method comprising:

forming a nanomaterial having at least one semiconductor quantum dot over the integrated circuit device, the nanomaterial having at least one semiconductor quantum dot being applied via solution-processing to the semiconductor substrate having the at least one integrated circuit device;

forming a three-dimensional bicontinuous heterostructure including at least two materials with a first material formed on the semiconductor substrate so that a surface of the first material completely covers a surface of the semiconductor substrate; and

forming a second material located on the first material, the first and the second materials each having a structure and morphology that includes protrusions with substantially no islands, the first material and the second material each being spatially continuous, the protrusions from the first material penetrate into the second material and the protrusions from the second material penetrate into the first material to form an irregular interpenetrating interface between the first and the second materials, the protrusions from the first material being opposite the surface of the first material that completely covers the surface of the semiconductor substrate.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and the second materials includes at least one of a plurality of visible-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles and/or at least one of a plurality of infrared-light absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a negative electrical bias is applied to one material and an positive electrical bias is applied to the other material for electron and hole extraction under illumination.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a second electrode applied to a top surface of the second material for electron extraction is selected from the group consisting of Mg, Al, and Ag.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second electrode includes an interlayer of an electron-rich material.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the electron-rich material is Li.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forming a first electrode coupled to the first material; and

forming a second electrode coupled to the second material, wherein the work functions of the first and the second materials are selected such that electrons travel towards one of the first and the second electrodes, and holes travel to the other electrode, resulting in a photovoltaic effect, characterized by a development of a sustained potential difference accompanied by net current flow into an external circuit without an application of an external bias to the first and the second electrodes.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first electrode comprises a hole conducting material.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first material includes the nanomaterial alone, and wherein the second material is selected from the group consisting of semiconductor polymers, organic molecules which transport electrons, holes or both, metals, pseudometallic materials, conducting oxides, Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:

PSS), and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the organic molecules are selected from the group consisting of oligomeric and polymeric organic molecules.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the polymeric organic molecules are selected from the group consisting of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2′

-ethylhexyloxyp-phenylenevinylene)](MEH-PPV), and polythiophene including regio-regular polythiophene.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the nanomaterial is formed of nanoparticles which have had organic ligands removed from the surfaces thereof.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the conducting oxide is selected from the group consisting of indium tin oxide, tin oxide, antimony-doped indium tin oxide, and antimony-doped tin oxide.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the second material includes the at least one semiconductor dot, the at least one semiconductor dot being selected from a group consisting of visible-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles and infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first material includes the nanomaterial, and wherein the second material includes second visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles different from the first visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles alone.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the nanomaterial or the visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles in the first and the second materials are made of different semiconductor materials that absorb at different wavelengths.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the nanomaterial or the visible and/or infrared-absorbing semiconducting quantum dot nanoparticles in the first and the second materials are made of the same semiconductor material but have different sizes that absorb at different wavelengths.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the second material is a composite material containing a first semiconducting polymer in combination with the nanomaterial, and wherein the first material is selected from the group consisting of semiconductor polymers, organic molecules which transport electrons, holes or both, metals, pseudo-metallic materials, conducting oxide and PEDOT:

PSS, and combinations thereof.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the composite material comprises a material having a ratio of quantum dot particles to semiconducting polymer that is greater than about 80% by mass.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the ratio is about 90% by mass.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanomaterial is selected from the group consisting of Ge, Si, SiGe, PbS, CdS, CdSe, PbSe, InAs, InP, InSb, InGaAsP, and core-shell nanoparticles consisting of combinations of semiconductors arrayed in a core-shell geometry.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanomaterial is initially coated with organic ligands selected from the group consisting of amines, thiols, fatty acids, phosphines, and phosphine oxides.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the protrusions from the first material penetrate into the second material and the protrusions from the second material penetrate into the first material and have lengths in a range from about 200 nm to about 2 microns, and wherein a portion of the first material formed on the semiconductor substrate outside of the interpenetrating interface has a thickness in a range from about 2 nm to about 200 nm, and wherein a portion of the second material outside of the interpenetrating interface has a thickness in a range from about 2 nm to about 200 nm.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the nanomaterial absorbs light in a wavelength region from about 800 nm to about 2000 nm.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate is glass, the first material includes indium tin oxide (ITO) coated with poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV), and wherein the second material includes a mixture of MEH-PPV and PbS nanocrystals.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate is a transparent semiconductor substrate, the first material is a semiconducting polymer layer coating the semiconductor substrate, and wherein the second material is a layer formed of infrared-absorbing quantum dot nanoparticles.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the second material is selected from the group consisting of semiconductor polymers, organic molecules which transport electrons, holes or both, metals, pseudo-metallic materials, conducting oxide and (PEDOT:

PSS), and combinations thereof.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor substrate is a transparent semiconductor substrate selected from a group consisting of quartz, glass, and a transparent polymer.