Preface

Ambipolar materials can exhibit both p-type and n-type conductivities and they are good candidates to build functional electronic devices. Both holes and electrons can be transported concurrently in ambipolar semiconductors. Various materials have been synthesized and utilized over the past few years for implementing ambipolar charge transport, and their further emerging applications comprise photovoltaic, ambipolar memory, artificial synapse, logic operation and light-emitting devices on account of their special bidirectional carrier-transporting characteristics. Within this book, recent developments of ambipolar materials involving materials design, fundamental principles, interface modifications, device structures, ambipolar characteristics and promising applications will be highlighted. The existing challenges and prospects for research in ambipolar materials in electronics and optoelectronics will also be discussed. It is expected that our book will be well-timed and instrumental in promoting rapid progress in academia for ambipolar materials in lighting, display, energy conversion, logic operation, data storage as well as neuromorphic computing for artificial intelligence.

We would like to acknowledge all the authors who have contributed to this book. We also want to express our gratitude to Connor Sheppard and Katie Morrey at the Royal Society of Chemistry for all their help during the book editorial process, and for the excellent experience of working with them. We also want to thank all readers for their interest in our book. Through this book, we have summarized the advances in the development of ambipolar materials and ambipolar devices. The challenges and possible solutions for device design are also pointed out, and prospects for commercial applications are evaluated. Our aim is to give a comprehensive, critical and up-to-date book.

We hope that this book can be useful as a reference guide for researchers who work in the field, as well as an introduction for students entering the field of ambipolar materials and related electronic devices.

Ye Zhou

Su-Ting Han