Metallic charge transport in conjugated molecular bilayers
Abstract Metallic charge transport of field-induced carriers can be observed in single-crystal silicon over a wide temperature range. Such behaviour is rare in undoped organic semiconductors but is beneficial for engineering devices with advanced performance. Here we report metallic charge transport in conjugated molecular bilayers down to 8 K with an electrical conductivity of up to 245 S cm −1 and a Hall mobility larger than 100 cm 2 V −1 s −1 at 20 K. We use molecular-crystal bilayers of the organic semiconductor 2-decyl-7-phenyl-[1]benzothieno[3,2- b ][1]benzothiophene. We infer that this transport behaviour originates from the phenyl bridge coupling between the two molecular layers, which suppresses molecular vibrations and weakens Coulomb interactions. We develop a controlled method for introducing defects, using which we observe a disorder-driven metal–insulator transition in the molecular crystal.
Authors
- Q.Y. Zhang
- Haoxin Gong
- Yi Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7909-6831)
- Linlu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8738-6676)
- Wei Ji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0266-8787)
- Z. LI
- Xinglong Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9824-5767)
- Xinyu Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1526-0353)
- Qijing Wang
- Jingsi Qiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6464-5500)
- P Wang
- Ian E. Jacobs (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1535-4608)
- Gang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3998-0349)
- Xu Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8322-6133)
- L. Zhou
- Sai Jiang
- Songlin Li
- Mengjiao Pei
- William Wood
- Yun Li
- Henning Sirringhaus
- Chunfeng Zhang
- Yating Li
- Luhao Liu
- Junzhan Wang
- Mingfei Xiao
- Di Wang
Institutions
- Shanghai University (CN)
- Beijing Institute of Technology (CN)
- ShanghaiTech University (CN)
- Nanjing Sport Institute (CN)
- University of Warwick (GB)
- Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures (CN)
- Shenyang Academy of Environmental Sciences (China) (CN)
- Changzhou University (CN)
- Renmin University of China (CN)
- Nanjing University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Electronics
- Published
- 2026-01-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01553-5
- Primary Topic
- Organic and Molecular Conductors Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Renmin University of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- Nanjing University
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- National Key Research and Development Program of China