Spectroscopy of Charge Carriers and Traps in Field-Doped Organic Semiconductors

This research project aims to achieve quantitative and molecular level understanding of charge carriers and traps in field-doped organic semiconductors via in situ optical absorption spectroscopy, in conjunction with time-resolved electrical measurements. During the funding period, we have made major progress in three general areas: (1) probed charge injection at the interface between a polymeric semiconductor and a polymer electrolyte dielectric and developed a thermodynamic model to quantitatively describe the transition from electrostatic to electrochemical doping; (2) developed vibrational Stark effect to probe electric field at buried organic semiconductor interfaces; (3) used displacement current measurement (DCM) to study charge transport at organic/dielectric interfaces and charge injection at metal/organic interfaces