Realizing Broadband NIR Photodetection and Ultrahigh Responsivity with Ternary Blend Organic Photodetector

With the advancement of portable optoelectronics, organic semiconductors have been attracting attention for their use in the sensing of white and near-infrared light. Ideally, an organic photodiode (OPD) should simultaneously display high responsivity and a high response frequency. In this study we used a ternary blend strategy to prepare PM6: BTP-eC9: PCBM-based OPDs with a broad bandwidth (350-950 nm), ultrahigh responsivity, and a high response frequency. We monitored the dark currents of the OPDs prepared at various PC₇₁BM blend ratios and evaluated their blend film morphologies using optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering. Optimization of the morphology and energy level alignment of the blend films resulted in the OPD prepared with a PM6:BTP-eC9:PC₇₁BM ternary blend weight ratio of 1:1.2:0.5 displaying an extremely low dark current (3.27 × 10^-9 A cm^-2) under reverse bias at -1 V, with an ultrahigh cut-off frequency (610 kHz, at 530 nm), high responsivity (0.59 A W^-1, at -1.5 V), and high detectivity (1.10 × 10¹³ Jones, under a reverse bias of -1 V at 860 nm). Furthermore, the rise and fall times of this OPD were rapid (114 and 110 ns), respectively.