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DOE OSTI2010

A SEARCH FOR BINARY ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI: DOUBLE-PEAKED [O III] AGNs IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY

We present active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) having double-peaked profiles of [O III]{lambda}{lambda}5007, 4959 and other narrow emission lines, motivated by the prospect of finding candidate binary AGNs. These objects were identified by means of a visual examination of 21,592 quasars at z < 0.7 in SDSS Data Release 7 (DR7). Of the spectra with adequate signal-to-noise, 148 spectra exhibit a double-peaked [O III] profile. Of these, 86 are Type 1 AGNs and 62 are Type 2 AGNs. Only two give the appearance of possibly being optically resolved double AGNs in the SDSS images, but many show close companions or signs of recent interaction. Radio-detected quasars are three times more likely to exhibit a double-peaked [O III] profile than quasars with no detected radio flux, suggesting a role for jet interactions in producing the double-peaked profiles. Of the 66 broad-line (Type 1) AGNs that are undetected in the FIRST survey, 0.9% show double-peaked [O III] profiles. We discuss statistical tests of the nature of the double-peaked objects. Further study is needed to determine which of them are binary AGNs rather than disturbed narrow line regions, and how many additional binaries may remain undetected because of insufficient line-of-sight velocity splitting. Previous studies indicate that 0.1% of SDSS quasars are spatially resolved binaries, with typical spacings of {approx}10-100 kpc. If a substantial fraction of the double-peaked objects are indeed binaries, then our results imply that binaries occur more frequently at smaller separations (<10 kpc). This suggests that simultaneous fueling of both black holes is more common as the binary orbit decays through these spacings.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2010

XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATIONS OF THE ENIGMATIC LONG PERIOD ECLIPSING BINARY EPSILON AURIGAE: CONSTRAINING THE PHYSICAL MODELS

We report on an XMM-Newton observation of the unusual, long period (F0 supergiant + cool disk companion) eclipsing binary star {epsilon} Aurigae observed in X-rays prior to the onset of the 2009-2011 eclipse phase. While it appears certain that a disk-like body is obscuring the star, it remains unclear what kind of object is at the center of the disk. The XMM-Newton observation had a duration of {approx}25 ks. The X-ray image does not show a source at the optical position of the star. We have determined a limiting X-ray flux of about 2.5 x 10{sup -15} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}. This flux is equivalent to a luminosity of about log L{sub X} {approx} 29.3-29.7 erg s{sup -1} for an unabsorbed source at the assumed distance, estimated to be between 650 and 1300 pc. The direct emission from an otherwise unobscured primary is excluded at a level above L{sub X} {approx} 4 x 10{sup 29} erg s{sup -1}. We explore the physical constraints that these limits put on the primary and several proposed models for the system secondary. For a black hole, we find that the direct absorption required by the disk is approximately N{sub H} {>=} 10{sup 25} cm{sup -2}. While not unreasonable for a protoplanetary disk, the lack of secondary X-rays makes this model unlikely. For high-mass models, in which the disk harbors pre-main-sequence stars, we find a minimum disk absorption of N{sub H} {>=} 10{sup 23} cm{sup -2}. Since this is not unlikely for a protoplanetary disk, this is not a significant constraint. For low-mass models, in which the disk harbors older stars, the known line-of-sight absorption is nearly enough to account for the non-detection. The data do not discriminate between these models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2010

FAINT COLLIMATED HERBIG-HARO JETS FROM VISIBLE STARS IN L1641

A population of 11 faint, collimated jets has been discovered in the northern part of the L1641 cloud in the region of HH 1/2, HH 34, and the L1641-N cluster. These jets were missed in previous imaging surveys on account of their weak emission, and they were discovered only on deep exposures with the Subaru 8 m telescope. With these new faint jets, the number of HH flows within the area surveyed has doubled. This suggests that collimated jets from young stars may be more common than previously assumed. It is noteworthy that all of the jets are associated with optically visible stars with r magnitudes ranging from 13.8 to 22.0. The driving sources of jets in regions flooded by ultraviolet radiation from nearby OB stars are known to be excavated by photoionization, and in three cases remnant H{alpha} emission envelopes are found associated with the sources, although the more benign environment in the region observed here, about 10 pc distant from the Orion Nebula Cluster, makes the optical visibility of all these sources rather surprising. Such faint jets from visible stars represent either the final vestiges of the outflow phenomenon, or they are triggered by disturbances of the remnant disks, possibly initiated by the orbital evolution of binaries that spiral in to form close binaries. Among the known H{alpha} emission stars within the region surveyed, 8% are found to be associated with jets.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

THE DISTANCE TO THE MASSIVE GALACTIC CLUSTER WESTERLUND 2 FROM A SPECTROSCOPIC AND HST PHOTOMETRIC STUDY

We present a spectroscopic and photometric determination of the distance to the young Galactic open cluster Westerlund 2 using WFPC2 imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground-based optical spectroscopy. HST imaging in the F336W, F439W, F555W, and F814W filters resolved many sources previously undetected in ground-based observations and yielded photometry for 1136 stars. We identified 15 new O-type stars, along with two probable binary systems, including MSP 188 (O3 + O5.5). We fit reddened spectral energy distributions based on the Padova isochrones to the photometric data to determine individual reddening parameters R{sub V} and A{sub V} for O-type stars in Wd2. We find average values (R{sub V} ) = 3.77 {+-} 0.09 and (A{sub V} ) = 6.51 {+-} 0.38 mag, which result in a smaller distance than most other spectroscopic and photometric studies. After a statistical distance correction accounting for close unresolved binaries (factor of 1.08), our spectroscopic and photometric data on 29 O-type stars yield that Westerlund 2 has a distance (d) = 4.16 {+-} 0.07 (random) +0.26 (systematic) kpc. The cluster's age remains poorly constrained, with an upper limit of 3 Myr. Finally, we report evidence of a faint mid-IR polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ring surrounding the well-known binary candidate MSP 18, which appears to lie at the center of a secondary stellar grouping within Westerlund 2.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

X-RAY EMISSION FROM THE SOMBRERO GALAXY: A GALACTIC-SCALE OUTFLOW

Based on new and archival Chandra observations of the Sombrero galaxy (M 104 = NGC 4594), we study the X-ray emission from its nucleus and the extended X-ray emission in and around its massive stellar bulge. We find that the 0.3-8 keV luminosity of the nucleus appears constant at {approx}2.4 x 10{sup 40} erg s{sup -1}, or {approx}10{sup -7} of its Eddington luminosity, on three epochs between 1999 December and 2008 April, but drops by a factor of two in the 2008 November observation. The 2-6 keV unresolved emission from the bulge region closely follows the K-band starlight and most likely arises from unresolved stellar sources. At lower energies, however, the unresolved emission reaches a galactocentric radius of at least 23 kpc, significantly beyond the extent of the starlight, clearly indicating the presence of diffuse hot gas. We isolate the emission of the gas by properly accounting for the emission from unresolved stellar sources, predominantly cataclysmic variables and coronally active binaries, whose quasi-universal X-ray emissivity was recently established. We find a gas temperature of {approx}0.6 keV with little variation across the field of view, except for a lower temperature of {approx}0.3 keV along the stellar disk. The metal abundance is not well constrained due to the limited counting statistics, but is consistent with metal enrichment by Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We measure a total intrinsic 0.3-2 keV luminosity of {approx}2 x 10{sup 39} erg s{sup -1}, which corresponds to only 1% of the available energy input by SNe Ia in the bulge, but is comparable to the prediction by the latest galaxy formation models for disk galaxies as massive as Sombrero. However, such numerical models do not fully account for internal feedback processes, such as nuclear feedback and stellar feedback, against accretion from the intergalactic medium. On the other hand, we find no evidence for either the nucleus or the very modest star-forming activities in the disk to be a dominant heating source for the diffuse gas. We also show that neither the expected energy released by SNe Ia nor the expected mass returned by evolved stars is recovered by observations. We argue that in Sombrero a galactic-scale subsonic outflow of hot gas continuously removes much of the 'missing' energy and mass input from the bulge region. The observed density and temperature distributions of such an outflow, however, continue to pose challenges to theoretical studies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

THE TEMPERATURE OF HOT GAS HALOS OF EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

Recently, the temperature T and the luminosity L{sub X} of the hot gas halos of early-type galaxies have been derived, with unprecedented accuracy, from Chandra data for a sample of 30 galaxies, covering a wider range of galactic luminosity (and central velocity dispersion {sigma}{sub c}) than before. This work investigates the origin of the observed temperatures by examining the relationship between them and the galaxy structure, the gas heating due to Type ia supernovae (SNe ia) and the gravitational potential, and the dynamical status of the gas flow. In galaxies with {sigma}{sub c} {approx}< 200 km s{sup -1}, the T's are close to a fiducial average temperature of gas in outflow; at 200 < {sigma}{sub c} (km s{sup -1}) < 250, the T's are generally lower than this and unrelated to {sigma}{sub c}, which requires a more complex gas flow status; at larger {sigma}{sub c}, the T's may increase as {sigma}{sup 2}{sub c}, as expected for infall heating, though heating from SNe ia, that is independent of {sigma}{sub c}, should be dominant. All observed T's are larger than the virial temperature, by up to {approx}0.5 keV. The additional heating can be provided in the X-ray brightest galaxies by SNe ia and infall heating, with an SN ia energy input even lower than in standard assumptions; in the X-ray fainter ones it can be provided by SNe ia, whose energy input would be required to be close to the full standard value at the largest {sigma}{sub c}. This same energy input, though, would produce temperatures larger than observed at low {sigma}{sub c} if entirely thermalized. The values of the observed T's increase from outflows to inflows; the gas is relatively hotter in outflows, however, if the T's are rescaled by the virial temperature. For 200 < {sigma}{sub c}(km s{sup -1}) < 250, lower L{sub X} values tend to correspond to lower T's, a result that deserves further investigation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

THE EFFECT OF PECULIAR VELOCITIES ON SUPERNOVA COSMOLOGY

We analyze the effect that peculiar velocities have on the cosmological inferences we make using luminosity distance indicators, such as Type Ia supernovae. In particular we study the corrections required to account for (1) our own motion, (2) correlations in galaxy motions, and (3) a possible local under- or overdensity. For all of these effects we present a case study showing the impact on the cosmology derived by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey (SDSS-II SN Survey). Correcting supernova (SN) redshifts for the cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole slightly overcorrects nearby SNe that share some of our local motion. We show that while neglecting the CMB dipole would cause a shift in the derived equation of state of {Delta}w {approx} 0.04 (at fixed {Omega}{sub m}), the additional local-motion correction is currently negligible ({Delta}w {approx}< 0.01). We then demonstrate a covariance-matrix approach to statistically account for correlated peculiar velocities. This down-weights nearby SNe and effectively acts as a graduated version of the usual sharp low-redshift cut. Neglecting coherent velocities in the current sample causes a systematic shift of {Delta}w {approx} 0.02. This will therefore have to be considered carefully when future surveys aim for percent-level accuracy and we recommend our statistical approach to down-weighting peculiar velocities as a more robust option than a sharp low-redshift cut.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

OBSERVABLE CONSEQUENCES OF MERGER-DRIVEN GAPS AND HOLES IN BLACK HOLE ACCRETION DISKS

We calculate the observable signature of a black hole (BH) accretion disk with a gap or a hole created by a secondary BH embedded in the disk. We find that for an interesting range of parameters of BH masses ({approx}10{sup 6}-10{sup 9} M{sub Sun }), orbital separation ({approx}1 AU to {approx}0.1 pc), and gap width (10-190 disk scale heights), the missing thermal emission from a gap manifests itself in an observable decrement in the spectral energy distribution (SED). We present observational diagnostics in terms of power-law forms that can be fit to line-free regions in active galactic nucleus (AGN) spectra or in fluxes from sequences of broad filters. Most interestingly, the change in slope in the broken power law is almost entirely dependent on the width of the gap in the accretion disk, which in turn is uniquely determined by the mass ratio of the BHs, such that it scales roughly as q {sup 5/12}. Thus, one can use spectral observations of the continuum of bright AGNs to infer not only the presence of a closely separated BH binary, but also the mass ratio. When the BH merger opens an entire hole (or cavity) in the inner disk, the broadband SED of the AGNs or quasar may serve as a diagnostic. Such sources should be especially luminous in optical bands but intrinsically faint in X-rays (i.e., not merely obscured). We briefly note that viable candidates may have already been identified, though extant detailed modeling of those with high-quality data have not yet revealed an inner cavity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Chandra Survey of Nearby Galaxies: A Significant Population of Candidate Central Black Holes in Late-type Galaxies

Based on the Chandra data archive as of 2016 March, we have identified 314 candidate active galactic nuclei in 719 galaxies located closer than 50 Mpc, among them late-type galaxies (Hubble types Sc and later) that previously had been classified from optical observations as containing star-forming (H ii) nuclei. These late-type galaxies comprise a valuable subsample to search for low-mass (≲10{sup 6} M{sub ⊙}) central black holes. For the sample as a whole, the overall dependence of the fraction of active nuclei on galaxy type and nuclear spectral classification is consistent with previous results based on optical surveys. We detect 51 X-ray cores among the 163 H ii nuclei and estimate that, very conservatively, ∼74% of them with luminosities above 10{sup 38} erg s{sup −1} are not contaminated by X-ray binaries; the fraction increases to ∼92% for X-ray cores with a luminosity of 10{sup 39} erg s{sup −1} or higher. This allows us to estimate a black hole occupation fraction of ≳21% in these late-type galaxies, many of which are bulgeless.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Morphology and Elemental Composition of Recent and Fossil Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria (cyanophyta, cyanoprokaryota, and blue-green algae) are an ancient, diverse and abundant group of photosynthetic oxygenic microorganisms. Together with other bacteria and archaea, the cyanobacteria have been the dominant life forms on Earth for over 3.5 billion years. Cyanobacteria occur in some of our planets most extreme environments - hot springs and geysers, hypersaline and alkaline lakes, hot and cold deserts, and the polar ice caps. They occur in a wide variety of morphologies. Unlike archaea and other bacteria, which are typically classified in pure culture by their physiological, biochemical and phylogenetic properties, the cyanobacteria have historically been classified based upon their size and morphological characteristics. These include the presence or absence of heterocysts, sheath, uniseriate or multiseriate trichomes, true or false branching, arrangement of thylakoids, reproduction by akinetes, binary fission, hormogonia, fragmentation, presence/absence of motility etc. Their antiquity, distribution, structural and chemical differentiation, diversity, morphological complexity and large size compared to most other bacteria, makes the cyanobacteria ideal candidates for morphological biomarkers in returned Astromaterials. We have obtained optical (nomarski and phase contrast)/fluorescent (blue and green excitation) microscopy images using an Olympus BX60 compound microscope and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy images and EDAX elemental compositions of living and fossil cyanobacteria. The S-4000 Hitachi Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) has been used to investigate microfossils in freshly fractured interior surfaces of terrestrial rocks and the cells, hormogonia, sheaths and trichomes of recent filamentous cyanobacteria. We present Fluorescent and FESEM Secondary and Backscattered Electron images and associated EDAX elemental analyses of recent and fossil cyanobacteria, concentrating on representatives of the genera Calothnx, Leptolyngbya, Lyngbya, Planktolyngbya and Oscillatoria.

SaintAmand, Ann↗
NASA NTRS2008

Gamma Ray Burst Discoveries with the Swift Mission

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most fascinating occurrences in the universe. They are powerful explosions, visible to high redshift, and thought to be the signature of black hole formation. The Swift Observatory has been detecting 100 bursts per year for 3 years and has greatly stimulated the field with new findings. Observations are made of the X-ray and optical afterglow from approximately 1 minute after the burst, continuing for days. Evidence is building that the long and short duration subcategories of GRBs have very different origins: massive star core collapse to a black hole for long bursts and binary neutron star coalescence to a black hole for short bursts. The similarity to Type II and Ia supernovae originating from young and old stellar progenitors is striking. Bursts are providing a new tool to study the high redshift universe. Swift has detected several events at z greater than 5 and one at z=6.3 giving metallicity measurements and other data on galaxies at previously inaccessible distances. The talk will present the latest results from Swift in GRB astronomy.

Gehrels, Neil↗
NASA NTRS2009

Gamma Ray Burst Discoveries with the Swift Mission

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most fascinating occurrences in the universe. They are powerful explosions, visible to high redshift, and thought to be the signature of black hole formation. The Swift Observatory has been detecting 100 bursts per year for 4 years and has greatly stimulated the field with new findings. Observations are made of the X-ray and optical afterglow from approximately 1 minute after the burst, continuing for days. Evidence is building that the long and short duration subcategories of GRBs have very different origins: massive star core collapse to a black hole for long bursts and binary neutron star coalescence to a black hole for short bursts. The similarity to Type II and Ia supernovae originating from young and old stellar progenitors is striking. Bursts are providing a new tool to study the high redshift universe. Swift has detected several events at z>5 and one at z=6.7 giving metallicity measurements and other data on galaxies at previously inaccessible distances. The talk will present the latest results from Swift in GRB astronomy.

Gehrels, Neil↗
DOE OSTI2011

THE OLD ENVIRONMENT OF THE FAINT CALCIUM-RICH SUPERNOVA SN 2005cz

The supernova SN 2005cz has recently attracted some attention due to the fact that it was spectroscopically similar to type Ib supernovae (SNe Ib), a class that is presumed to result from the core collapse of massive stars, yet it occurred in an elliptical galaxy, where one expects very few massive stars to exist. Two explanations for this remarkable event were put forward. Perets et al. associate SN 2005cz with the class of Ca-rich, faint SNe Ib, which likely result from old double-white-dwarf systems with an He-rich secondary. On the other hand, Kawabata et al. suggest that SN 2005cz is indeed a core-collapse event (in a binary system), albeit of a star at the lower end of the mass range, 10-12 M{sub sun}. The existence of this star in its elliptical host is explained as resulting from low-level star formation (SF) activity in that galaxy. Here we present extensive observations of the location of SN 2005cz, sensitive to a variety of SF tracers, including optical spectroscopy, H{alpha} emission, UV emission, and Hubble Space Telescope photometry. We show that NGC 4589, the host galaxy of SN 2005cz, does not show any signatures of a young stellar population or recent SF activity either close to or far from the location of SN 2005cz.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Evidence for Dynamically Driven Formation of the GW170817 Neutron Star Binary in NGC 4993

Here, we present a study of NGC 4993, the host galaxy of the GW170817 gravitational-wave event, the GRB 170817A short gamma-ray burst (sGRB), and the AT 2017gfo kilonova. We use Dark Energy Camera imaging, AAT spectra, and publicly available data, relating our findings to binary neutron star (BNS) formation scenarios and merger delay timescales. NGC 4993 is a nearby early-type galaxy, with an i-band Sérsic index n = 4.0 and low asymmetry (A = 0.04 ± 0.01). These properties are unusual for sGRB hosts. However, NGC 4993 presents shell-like structures and dust lanes indicative of a recent galaxy merger, with the optical transient located close to a shell. We constrain the star formation history (SFH) of the galaxy assuming that the galaxy merger produced a star formation burst, but find little to no ongoing star formation in either spatially resolved broadband SED or spectral fitting. We use the best-fit SFH to estimate the BNS merger rate in this type of galaxy, as ${R}_{\mathrm{NSM}}^{\mathrm{gal}}={5.7}_{-3.3}^{+0.57}\times {10}^{-6}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$. If star formation is the only considered BNS formation scenario, the expected number of BNS mergers from early-type galaxies detectable with LIGO during its first two observing seasons is ${0.038}_{-0.022}^{+0.004}$, as opposed to ~0.5 from all galaxy types. Hypothesizing that the binary formed due to dynamical interactions during the galaxy merger, the subsequent time elapsed can constrain the delay time of the BNS coalescence. By using velocity dispersion estimates and the position of the shells, we find that the galaxy merger occurred t mer $\lesssim$ 200 Myr prior to the BNS coalescence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

A Precision Determination of the Effect of Metallicity on Cepheid Absolute Magnitudes in VIJHK Bands from Magellanic Cloud Cepheids

Using high-quality observed period–luminosity ( P – L ) relations in both Magellanic Clouds in the VIJHK s bands and optical and near-infrared Wesenheit indices, we determine the effect of metallicity on Cepheid P – L relations by comparing the relative distance between the LMC and SMC as determined from the Cepheids to the difference in distance between the Clouds that has been derived with very high accuracy from late-type eclipsing binary systems. Within an uncertainty of 3%, which is dominated by the uncertainty on the mean difference in metallicity between the Cepheid populations in the LMC and SMC, we find metallicity effects smaller than 2% in all bands and in the Wesenheit indices, consistent with a zero metallicity effect. This result is valid for the metallicity range from −0.35 dex to −0.75 dex corresponding to the mean [Fe/H] values for classical Cepheids in the LMC and SMC, respectively. Yet most Cepheids in galaxies beyond the Local Group and located in the less crowded outer regions of these galaxies do fall into this metallicity regime, making our result important for applications to determine the distances to spiral galaxies well beyond the Local Group. Our result supports previous findings that indicated a very small metallicity effect on the near-infrared absolute magnitudes of classical Cepheids, and resolves the dispute about the size and sign of the metallicity effect in the optical spectral range. It also resolves one of the most pressing problems in the quest toward a measurement of the Hubble constant with an accuracy of 1% from the Cepheid–supernova Ia method.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

JET PROPAGATIONS, BREAKOUTS, AND PHOTOSPHERIC EMISSIONS IN COLLAPSING MASSIVE PROGENITORS OF LONG-DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

We investigate the following by two-dimensional axisymmetric relativistic hydrodynamical simulations: (1) jet propagations through an envelope of a rapidly rotating and collapsing massive star, which is supposed to be a progenitor of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs); (2) breakouts and subsequent expansions into stellar winds; and (3) the accompanying photospheric emissions. We find that if the envelope rotates uniformly almost at the mass shedding limit, its outer part eventually stops contracting when the centrifugal force becomes large enough. Then another shock wave is formed, propagates outward, and breaks out of the envelope into the stellar wind. Whether the jet or the centrifugal bounce-induced shock breaks out earlier depends on the timing of jet injection. If the shock breakout occurs earlier, owing to a later injection, the jet propagation and subsequent photospheric emissions are affected substantially. We pay particular attention to observational consequences of the difference in the timing of jet injection. We calculate optical depths to find the location of photospheres, extracting densities, and temperatures at appropriate retarded times from the hydrodynamical data. We show that the luminosity and observed temperature of the photospheric emissions are both much lower than those reported in previous studies. Although luminosities are still high enough for GRBs, the observed temperatures are lower than the energy at the spectral peak expected by the Yonetoku relation. This may imply that energy exchanges between photons and matter are terminated deeper inside or that some non-thermal processes are operating to boost photon energies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Single‐Junction Binary‐Blend Nonfullerene Polymer Solar Cells with 12.1% Efficiency

A new fluorinated nonfullerene acceptor, ITIC‐Th1, has been designed and synthesized by introducing fluorine (F) atoms onto the end‐capping group 1,1‐dicyanomethylene‐3‐indanone (IC). On the one hand, incorporation of F would improve intramolecular interaction, enhance the push–pull effect between the donor unit indacenodithieno[3,2‐b]thiophene and the acceptor unit IC due to electron‐withdrawing effect of F, and finally adjust energy levels and reduce bandgap, which is beneficial to light harvesting and enhancing short‐circuit current density ( J SC ). On the other hand, incorporation of F would improve intermolecular interactions through CF···S, CF···H, and CF···π noncovalent interactions and enhance electron mobility, which is beneficial to enhancing J SC and fill factor. Indeed, the results show that fluorinated ITIC‐Th1 exhibits redshifted absorption, smaller optical bandgap, and higher electron mobility than the nonfluorinated ITIC‐Th. Furthermore, nonfullerene organic solar cells (OSCs) based on fluorinated ITIC‐Th1 electron acceptor and a wide‐bandgap polymer donor FTAZ based on benzodithiophene and benzotriazole exhibit power conversion efficiency (PCE) as high as 12.1%, significantly higher than that of nonfluorinated ITIC‐Th (8.88%). The PCE of 12.1% is the highest in fullerene and nonfullerene‐based single‐junction binary‐blend OSCs. Moreover, the OSCs based on FTAZ:ITIC‐Th1 show much better efficiency and better stability than the control devices based on FTAZ:PC 71 BM (PCE = 5.22%).

Zhao, Fuwen↗