Color-selective photocurrent enhancement in coupled J-aggregate/nanowires formed in solution

J-aggregates are ordered clusters of coherently coupled molecular dyes, (1) and they have been used as light sensitizers in film photography due to their intense absorptions. Hybrid structures containing J-aggregates may also have applications in devices that require spectral specificity, such as color imaging or optical signaling. (2) However the use of J-aggregates in optoelectronic devices has posed a long-standing challenge (3, 4) due to the difficulty of controlling aggregate formation and the low charge carrier mobility of many J-aggregates in solid state. In this paper, we demonstrate a modular method to assemble three different cyanine J-aggregates onto CdSe nanowires, resulting in a photodetector that is color-sensitized in three specific, narrow absorption bands. Both the J-aggregate and nanowire device components are fabricated from solution and the sensitizing wavelength is switched from blue to red to green, using only solution-phase exchange of the J-aggregates on the same underlying device.