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Abstract: In this work, we experimentally studied the influence of photoexcitation energy influence on the charge transport in organic semiconductors. Organic semiconductors were small molecules like corannulene, perylene and pentacene derivatives, polymers such as polythiophene and benzothiophene derivatives, and graphene, along with combinations of these materials in heterojunctions or composites. The first part of this study is focused on the photoexcitation energy influence on the transient photoconductivity of non-crystalline curved π-conjugated corannulene layers. The enhanced photoconductivity, in the energy range where optical absorption is absent, is deduced from theoretical predictions of corannulene gas-phase excited state spectra. Theoretical analysis reveals a consistent contribution involving transitions to Super Atomic Molecular Orbitals (SAMOs), a unique set of diffuse orbitals typical of curved π-conjugated molecules. More, the photoconductivity of the curved corannulene was compared to the π-conjugated planar N,N′-1H,1H- perfluorobutyldicyanoperylene-carboxydi-imide (PDIF-CN2), where the photoexcitation energy dependence of photocurrent closely follows the optical absorption spectrum. We next characterized charge transport in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) layers deposited from solution. Our results indicate that time-of-flight (TOF) mobility depends on the photoexcitation energy. It is 0.4× 10 −3 cm 2 /Vs at 2.3 eV (530 nm) and doubles at 4.8 eV (260 nm). TOF mobility was compared to field-effect (FET) mobility of P3HT field-effect transistors (OFETs). The FET mobility was similar to the 2.3 eV excitation TOF mobility. In order to improve charge mobility, graphene nanoparticles were blended within a P3HT solution before the deposition. We found that the mobility significantly improves upon the addition of graphene nanoparticles of a weight ratio as low as 0.2 %. FET mobility increases with graphene concentration up to a value of 2.3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs at 3.2 %. The results demonstrate that phase segregation starts to influence charge transport at graphene concentration of 0.8 % and above. Hence, the graphene cannot form a bridged conduction channel between electrodes, which would cancel the semiconducting effect of the polymer composite. An alternative approach to enhance mobility is to optimize the molecular ordering of organic semiconductors. For that purpose, we studied an innovative nanomesh device. Free-standing nanomesh devices were used to form nanojunctions of N,N′- iiDioctyl-3,4,9,10-perylenedicarboximide (PTCDI-C8) nanowires and crystalline bis(triisopropylsilylethinyl)pentacene (TIPS-PEN). We characterized the photocurrent response time of this novel nanomesh scaffold device. The photoresponse time depends on the photon energy. It is between 4.5 − 5.6 ns at 500 nm excitation wavelength and between 6.7 − 7.7 ns at 700 nm excitation wavelength. In addition, we found that thermal annealing reduces charge carrier trapping in crystalline nanowires. This confirms that the structural defects are crucial to obtaining high photon-to-charge conversion efficiency and subsequent transport from pn junction in heterostructured materials. Structural defects also influence the power conversion efficiency of organic heterostructured photovoltaics (OPVs). Anticipating that polymers with different backbone lengths produce different level of structural defects, we examined charge transport dependence on the molecular weight of poly[4,8-bis(5-(2- ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-(4-(2- ethylhexyl)-3-fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-)-2-carboxylate-2-6-diyl] (PTB7-Th) from 50 kDa to 300 kDa. We found p-type hopping transport in PTB7-Th, characterized by 0.1 – 3× 10 −2 cm 2 /Vs mobility, which increases with temperature and electric field. The polymer molecular weight exhibits a non-trivial influence on charge transport. FET mobility in the saturation regime increases with molecular weight. A similar trend is observed in TOF mobility and FET mobility in the linear regime, except for the 100kDa polymer, which manifests in the highest mobility due to reduced charge trapping. The lowest trapping at the dielectric interface of OFET is observed at 200 kDa. In addition, the 200 kDa polymer exhibits the lowest activation energy of the charge transport. Although the 100 kDa polymer indicates the highest mobility, OPVs using the 200 kDa polymer exhibit the best performance in terms of power conversion efficiency.
Keywords: organic semiconductors, optical absorption spectroscopy, time-of-flight photoconductivity, transient photocurrent spectroscopy, organic thin film transistors, atomic force microscopy, superatomic molecular orbitals, pn heterojunction, organic nanowires, graphene, composites, charge mobility, charge trapping, temperature dependence, photodetector, photovoltaic, solar cell, organic electronics
Published in RUNG: 08.10.2018; Views: 6769; Downloads: 170
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Abstract: Charge-carrier mobility has been investigated by time-of-flight (TOF) transient photocurrent in a lateral transport con- figuration in highly crystalline thin films of 2,7-dioctyl[1]benzothieno [3,2-b][1] benzothiophene (C8-BTBT) grown by a zone-casting alignment technique. High TOF mobility has been revealed that it is consistent with the delocalized nature of the charge transport in this material, yet it featured a positive temperature dependence at T ≥ 295 K. Moreover, the mobility was surprisingly found to decrease with electric field in the high-temperature region. These observations are not compat- ible with the conventional band-transport mechanism. We have elaborated an analytic model based on effective-medium approximation to rationalize the puzzling findings. The model considers the delocalized charge transport within the energy landscape formed by long-range transport band-edge variations in imperfect organic crystalline materials and accounts for the field-dependent effective dimensionality of charge transport percolative paths. The results of the model calculations are found to be in good agreement with experimental data.
Keywords: time of flight, organic semiconductors, single crystals
Published in RUNG: 07.05.2018; Views: 6229; Downloads: 0
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Abstract: We have performed a systematic study of dependence of time-resolved photocurrent on the point of charge excitation within the organic semiconductor channel formed by two coplanar metal electrodes. The results confirm that spatial variation of electric field between the electrodes crucially determines transport of photogenerated charge carriers through the organic layer. Time-of-flight measurements of photocurrent demonstrate that the transit time of photogenerated charge carrier packets drifting between the two electrodes decreases with increasing travelling distance. Such counterintuitive result cannot be reconciled with the spatial distribution of electric field between coplanar electrodes, alone. It is also in contrast to expected role of space-charge screening of external electric field. Supported by Monte Carlo simulations of hopping transport in disordered organic semiconductor layer, we submit that the space-charge screens the external electric field and captures slower charge carriers from the photogenerated charge carrier packet. The remaining faster carriers, exhibit velocity distribution with significantly higher mean value and shorter transit time.
Keywords: Charge transport, Organic semiconductors, Time of flight, Mobility, Traps
Published in RUNG: 23.12.2016; Views: 6286; Downloads: 0
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