The influence of dipolar species on charge carrier transport in a linear polysilicon

Effect of polar substituents and polar dopants on the transport of charge carriers in poly[methyl(phenyl)silanediyl] (PMPSI) was studied. The transport in undoped PMPSI can be explained within the theory of disordered polarons which postulates that the temperature and field dependence of the charge carrier mobility contain contributions both from the dynamic disorder, i.e. the polaron barrier, and from the environment-dependent static disorder. Polar moieties, chemically attached to the main polymer chain, give rise to a decrease of the on-chain mobility, due to the formation of local electronic polarization states. On the macroscopic level, these moieties and polar dopants give rise to a decrease of the drift (hopping) mobility due to a broadening of the distribution of the density of transport states as a consequence of the electrostatic interaction of the charge carrier with the dipole.