Organic Charge-Coupled Device

Charge coupled devices (CCDs), often used for scientific imaging and photography, conventionally comprise an active inorganic semiconductor such as silicon. Organic semiconductors, however, are typically unsuited for such an application due to their low charge mobilities and short carrier lifetimes. Here, we demonstrate a CCD using organic semiconductor materials. It is based on a unique channel geometry with relatively high electron mobilities and very long carrier lifetimes demonstrated by Burlingame et al. (Nature 2018, 554, 77). Repulsive potentials are used to confine and spatially manipulate photogenerated and background charge packets, passing them between closely spaced metal-insulator-organic semiconductor capacitors that form a linear, four-pixel shift register. In contrast to conventional inorganic CCDs, the organic device uses majority carriers or photogenerated electrons to transport the signal current. Extrapolating from these results, we estimate that a 500 x 500 pixel organic CCD can be read out on a millisecond time scale.