The knowledge about properties of electronic traps in organic semiconductors is one of the major keys for the understanding and optimization of charge transport in organic devices. In the present article the density of occupied states of the most prominent pristine small molecule systems and selected polymers are reported determined, by fractional thermally stimulated current and luminescence techniques. In order to distinguish between impurity and structurally based traps, model systems of doped as well as differently deposited layers were studied. In addition, the influence of detected traps on steady state I-V and dynamic time-of-flight characteristics are reported. DOS Energy LUMO FWHM: 200meV HOMO Energy LUMO FWHM: 200meV LUMO FWHM: 200meV
HOMO HOMOThe charge transport in such amorphous layers is mainly determined by hopping processes between strongly localized molecular states. Therefore, it is not obvious how to distinguish between a trap state and a regular transport state. A way out is given by the transport energy concept first introduced by Monro [1] for amorphous inorganic semiconductors and later extended to amorphous organic semiconductors by several authors [2 -6]. This concept is based on a statistical rule, namely, that a carrier in a deep tail state will most probably escape to a state of energy E t independent on its initial energy in the tail (Fig. 2). This makes the energy level E t to a protruding quantity. E t is called transport energy or escape energy since it describes the level from which a trapped carrier is most probably released to move to a neighbouring site. The transport energy has only a statistical meaning, but its role is similar to that of the band edge or mobility edge in inorganic semiconductors. Consequently, each state below the transport energy is a trap state while states above the transport energy are regular transport states, despite all states are localized. However, the transport energy is a function of temperature. A state acting as trap state at room temperature may become a transport state at lower temperatures. Besides the trap states formed by the tail of the regular HOMO/LUMO level distribution there may exist additional trap states at a discrete energy level or with any arbitrary energy distribution in the gap below the transport energy (see Fig. 3).
Structural Defects:Even if there are only molecules of the same species, the HOMO/LUMO levels may vary from molecule to molecule. The exact energy position of the HOMO/LUMO level is not only determined by the chemical structure of the molecule itself but also by the electronic polarisation of its surrounding. In case of polymers the effective conjugation length also affects the position of the HOMO/LUMO level. Structural imperfections will lead to a fluctuating surrounding and in case of polymers to a fluctuating conjugation length. In consequence a distribution of HOMO/LUMO levels has to be expected as presented in Fig. 1. The few states in the tail of this distribution below the transport energy will form the tr...