Observation of Electroluminescence and Photovoltaic Response in Ionic Junctions
Daniel A. Bernards,1
Samuel Flores-Torres,2
Héctor D. Abruña,2
George G. Malliaras1*
Electronic devices primarily use electronic rather than ionic charge carriers. Using soft-contact lamination, we fabricated ionic junctions between two organic semiconductors with mobile anions and cations, respectively. Mobile ionic charge was successfully deployed to control the direction of electronic current flow in semiconductor devices. As a result, these devices showed electroluminescence under forward bias and a photovoltage upon illumination with visible light. Thus, ionic charge carriers can enhance the performance of existing electronic devices, as well as enable new functionalities.
1 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
2 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ggm1{at}cornell.edu
