A comprehensive overview of organic semiconductor crystals is provided, including the physicochemical features, the control of crystallization and the device physics.

Organic photoresponse materials and devices are critically important to organic optoelectronics and energy crises. The activities of photoresponse in organic materials can be summarized in three effects, photoconductive, photovoltaic and optical memory effects. Correspondingly, devices based on the three effects can be divided into (i) photoconductive devices such as photodetectors, photoreceptors, photoswitches and phototransistors, (ii) photovoltaic devices such as organic solar cells, and (iii) optical data storage devices. It is expected that this systematic analysis of photoresponse materials and devices could be a guide for the better understanding of structure–property relationships of organic materials and provide key clues for the fabrication of high performance organic optoelectronic devices, the integration of them in circuits and the application of them in renewable green energy strategies (critical review, 452 references).

The integration of high charge carrier mobility and high luminescence in an organic semiconductor is challenging. However, there is need of such materials for organic light-emitting transistors and organic electrically pumped lasers. Here we show a novel organic semiconductor, 2,6-diphenylanthracene (DPA), which exhibits not only high emission with single crystal absolute florescence quantum yield of 41.2% but also high charge carrier mobility with single crystal mobility of 34 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹. Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on DPA give pure blue emission with brightness up to 6,627 cd m⁻² and turn-on voltage of 2.8 V. 2,6-Diphenylanthracene OLED arrays are successfully driven by DPA field-effect transistor arrays, demonstrating that DPA is a high mobility emissive organic semiconductor with potential in organic optoelectronics.