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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