Author: Chenchen Wang

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

Conjugated polymers have attracted broad interest in the past few decades due to their potential applications in organic light emitting diodes, low-cost flexible circuits, biosensors and photovoltaics. Because of their semicrystalline nature, the spatial arrangement of the crystallites and the disordered regions would have strong impact on the charge transport properties of conjugated polymer thin films. Therefore, in this presentation, I will focus on understanding the relationship between the film's morphology, microstructure and electronic properties, and how to fabricate desired structure to achieve devices with novel electronic performance. In the first part of the presentation, I will show that the device's electronic performance can be greatly improved by engineering its structure in solution based fabrication process. The binary blends of regioregular (rr) and regiorandom (RRa) P3HT are used to form desired FET structures. X-ray diffraction of the blended films is consistent with a vertically-separated structure, with rr-P3HT preferentially crystallizing at the semiconductor/dielectric interface. Because of the ultra-thin rr-P3HT active layer at the interface, these devices not only preserve high mobility in rr-P3HT, but also eliminate the short channel effects due to bulk currents, suggesting a new route to fabricate high performance, short-channel and reliable organic electronic devices. After that, I will discuss the microstructural origin of high mobility in poly(2,5-bis(3-alkylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophenes) (PBTTT) thin-film transistors (TFTs). Charge transport in PBTTT TFTs is analyzed with a mobility edge (ME) model and compared to these in poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) TFTs. With TEM characterization of delaminated films, we conclude that the improved performance of PBTTT compared to P3HT is not due to a low trap density but rather to a high mobility in the crystallites. Finally, the third part of the presentation will focus on optical characterization of doping in conjugated polymers. UV-vis and IR absorption spectra of 2,3,5,6-Tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4TCNQ) doped P3HT at different doping concentration are measured and analyzed. Absorption peaks from P3HT, F4TCNQ, F4TCNQ anion and P3HT polaron/bipolarons are identified and decomposed. The P3HT polaron/bipolarons cross sections in UV-vis region are estimated, which can be used to evaluate doping efficiency in this material.