Effective film surface treatment for improving external quantum efficiency of photomultiplication type organic photodetector

Abstract

A simple yet effective method based on methanol treatment is proposed to enhance the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the photomultiplication type organic photodetector with a structure of Glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3H:PC₇₁BM (100:1, wt./wt.)/Al. By modifying the PEDOT:PSS film surface with methanol, the EQE of photodetector significantly improved within a broad wavelength range of 300–700 nm. The maximum EQE of 25300% occurs at the wavelength of 350 nm in the methanol-treated device under −9 V bias, which more than doubles that (11500%) of the device without treatment. In addition, as a result of the methanol treatment, the detectivity of the device improved from 3.72 × 10¹² to 7.24 × 10¹² Jones at −9 V under 350 nm light illumination. The large improvement is attributed to the fact that the methanol treatment can improve the electrical performance of the PEDOT:PSS by removing the insulator PSS within the film and also result in PC₇₁BM aggregations in the active layer. The latter can enhance the tunneling hole injection by the intensified energy-level bending, which is induced by both the trapped electrons in these aggregations and accumulated ones near Al electrode. As a result, the modification of both the PEDOT:PSS layer and the active layer increases the response current, resulting in the EQE improvement.