Charge transport in poly(p-phenylene vinylene) at low temperature and high electric field

• We characterize charge transport in MEH-PPV hole-only diodes over an unprecedented range of electric field and temperature.
• The data set presented can be used as a benchmark to verify any theoretical charge transport model.
• We show that commonly used models describe the data well only in the field range that is conventionally used in experiments.
• We disentangle the effects of carrier density and electric field on the charge carrier mobility.
• Within a simple approximation we extract the hopping length directly from the experimental data at high fields.

Charge transport in poly(2-methoxy, 5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV)-based hole-only diodes is investigated at high electric fields and low temperatures using a novel diode architecture. Charge carrier densities that are in the range of those in a field-effect transistor are achieved, bridging the gap in the mobility versus charge carrier density plot between polymer-based light-emitting diodes and field-effect transistors. The extended field range that is accessed allows us to discuss the applicability of current theoretical models of charge transport, using numerical simulations. Finally, within a simple approximation, we extract the hopping length for holes in MEH-PPV directly from the experimental data at high fields, and we derive a value of 1.0 ± 0.1 nm.

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