Enhanced Photomultiplication Effect by Synergistic Integration of Hole-Blocking Layers and Trap Engineering in PM-OPDs

TL;DR

This paper presents a vacuum-deposited organic photodetector with integrated hole-blocking layers and trap engineering, achieving high gain, low dark current, and fast response for weak-light detection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel trap engineering approach with hole-blocking layers that enhances photomultiplier performance by decoupling gain from dark current.

Findings

Peak EQE exceeds 1100% at -4 V bias.

Detectivity reaches 4x10^{12} Jones under -2 V bias.

Device bandwidth is 22 kHz.

Abstract

Photomultiplication-type organic photodetectors (PM-OPDs) promise exceptional sensitivity for weak-light detection but typically suffer from a gain-bandwidth trade-off where high external quantum efficiency (EQE) incurs large dark current and slow response times. Here, we demonstrate a fully vacuum-deposited PM-OPD architecture that mitigates these limitations by integrating hole-blocking layers low-stoichiometry molecular trap engineering. We isolate discrete trapping sites that maximize positive space-charge accumulation by introducing m-MTDATA as a dedicated hole-trapping site at a low concentration (0.5 wt\%) into a BDP-OMe:C60 bulk heterojunction. This engineered charge confinement triggers efficient field-assisted electron injection from the anode while remaining strictly below the threshold for localized percolation, effectively decoupling the photocurrent multiplication mechanism from trap-mediated dark current shunts. Consequently, the optimized device achieves a peak EQE exceeding 1100% at a reverse bias of -4 V. The optimized device exhibits a specific detectivity of 4x10^{12} Jones under -2 V reverse bias along with a cutoff frequency (f-3dB) of 22 kHz.