Electrical Processes in Organic Thin Film Devices – From Bulk Materials to Nanoscale Architectures

A one-stop examination of fundamental electrical behaviour in organic electronic device architectures

In Electrical Processes in Organic Thin Film Devices: From Bulk Materials to Nanoscale Architectures, distinguished researcher Michael C. Petty delivers an in-depth treatment of the electrical behaviour of organic electronic devices focused on first principles. The author describes the fundamental electrical behaviour of various device architectures and offers an introduction to the physical processes that play a role in the electrical conductivity of organic materials.

Beginning with band theory, the text moves on to address the effects of thin film device architectures and nanostructures. The book discusses the applications to devices currently in the marketplace, like displays, as well as those under development (transistors, solar cells, and memories).

Electrical Processes in Organic Thin Film Devices also describes emerging organic thin film architectures and explores the potential for single molecule electronics and biologically inspired devices. Finally, the book also includes:

• A detailed introduction to electronic and vibrational states in organic solids, including classical band theory, disordered semiconductors, and lattice vibrations
• Comprehensive explorations of electrical conductivity, including electronic and ionic processes, carrier drift, diffusion, the Boltzmann Transport Equation, excess carriers, recombination, doping, and superconductivity
• An overview of important electro-active organic materials, like molecular crystals, charge-transfer complexes, conductive polymers, carbon nanotubes, and graphene
• Practical considerations of defects and nanoscale phenomena, including transport processes in low-dimensional systems, surfaces and interface states
• In-depth examinations of metal contacts, including ohmic contacts, the Schottky Barrier, and metal/molecule contacts
• A systematic guide to the operating principles of metal/insulator/semiconductor structures and the field effect
• A set of problems (with solutions on-line) for each chapter of the book

Perfect for electronics developers and researchers in both industry and academia who study and work with molecular and nanoscale electronics, Electrical Processes in Organic Thin Film Devices also deserves a place in the libraries of undergraduate and postgraduate students in courses on molecular electronics, organic electronics, and plastic electronics.

Michael C. Petty is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Engineering at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. He is Past President of the International Society for Molecular Electronics and Biocomputing and a previous Chairman of the School of Engineering at Durham University. He has published extensively in the areas of organic electronics and molecular electronics.