Highly ordered semiconducting polymer arrays for sensitive photodetectors.

Semiconducting conjugated polymers possess attractive optoelectronic properties, low-cost solution processability and inherent mechanical flexibility. However, the device performance is susceptible to the fabrication methods owing to their relative weak intermolecular interaction and inherent conformational and energetic disorder. An efficient fabrication technique for large-scale integration of high-quality polymer architectures is of essential importance in realizing high-performance optoelectronic devices. Here, we report an efficient method for fabrication of polymer nanowire arrays with precise position, smooth surface, homogenous size, high crystallinity and ordered molecular packing. The controllable dewetting dynamics on a template with asymmetric wettability permits the formation of discrete capillary bridges, resulting in the ordered molecular packing arising from unidirectional recession of the three-phase contact line. The high quality of nanowire architectures is evidenced by the morphological characteristics and hybrid edge-on and face-on molecular packing with high crystallinity. Based on these high-quality nanowire arrays, photodetectors with responsivity of 84.7 A W-1 and detectivity exceeding 1012 Jones are realized. Our results provide a platform for integration of high-quality polymer architectures toward high-performance optoelectronic devices.