| Solution-based fabrication methods for semiconductor films provide great versatility in the design of semiconductor devices and enable a myriad of new applications. This versatility stems from the low cost of solution-based fabrication processes, as well as the ability to combine materials and control the self-assembly of nanoscale features in cast semiconductor films. These processing techniques also give rise to a host of scientific questions concerning the properties of the resulting semiconductor films and control of the solution-based self-assembly. Among the diverse applications and materials that are amenable to solution-processing, in this thesis I focus on semiconducting polymers for solar cell applications, and solution-processed inorganic semiconductors for radiation detection devices.;In Part I, I present three studies aimed at improving the efficiencies and understanding of semiconducting polymer-based bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. Specifically, the use of processing additives for controlling the BHJ morphology is explored, and we find enhanced photoexcited carrier mobility in PCPDTBTi BHJ devices processed with the additive ODTii. Next, the opto-electronic properties of PCDTBT iii (a member of a promising new class of polymers) are studied, revealing that the photoexcited mobile carrier generation efficiency in this material depends on the energy of the absorbed photon. Finally, the temporal dependence of carrier relaxation in P3HTiv BHJs is investigated, and related to the presence of shallow interfacial traps in the BHJ.;In Part II, I present a novel solution-based synthesis and fabrication method for metal chalcogenide semiconductors. The value of this method is demonstrated first with the fabrication of CdSe photodetectors that exhibit a high sensitivity and bandwidth. Next, I apply this method to the fabrication of neutron detectors where the neutron-sensitizing material is dispersed in a semiconductor matrix, and show that the devices have a high sensitivity to ionizing radiation. These promising results demonstrate the utility of this fabrication technique for various device technologies and further confirm the optimistic prospects for solution-processed semiconducting films in general.;ipoly[2,6-(4,4-bis-(2-ethylhexyl)-4H-cyclopenta[2,1-b;3,4-b']-dithiophene)-alt-4,7-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)] ii1,8-octanedithiol iii poly[N-9''-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4',7'-di-2-thienyl-2',1',3'-benzothiadiazole)] ivpoly(3-hexylthiophene)... |
