AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Monday Sessions
       Session NS-MoA

Paper NS-MoA8
Nanoscale Stepping Stones for Enhanced Charge Transport through Organic Materials

Monday, November 13, 2006, 4:20 pm, Room 2016

Session: Nanoscale Structures and Characterization I
Presenter: D.B. Robinson, Sandia National Laboratories
Authors: D.B. Robinson, Sandia National Laboratories
A.A. Talin, Sandia National Laboratories
R.J. Anderson, Sandia National Laboratories
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The charge transport properties of organic materials, and the mechanisms of this transport, depend strongly on the length scale being studied. At very short length scales, charge transport is sensitive to geometry, and experimental methods tend to be exotic and expensive, with low sample throughput. Among the most tractable device geometries that have been demonstrated is one consisting of an array or superlattice of particles spanning electrode pairs. We have developed a test platform for organic electronics based on this geometry that is especially simple, relying only on parallel, low-cost techniques including solution-based self assembly, and that is compatible with a range of characterization techniques such as cyclic voltammetry, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible reflectance spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. It is also compatible with architectures for sensing applications.@footnote 1@ For example, the in-plane conductivity through a thin film of a conducting polymer, poly (3-hexylthiophene), is enhanced by the presence of a regular array of metallic nanoparticles spaced on a length scale comparable to the persistence length of the polymer, perhaps because the particles provide resting points for charge carriers from which they can more easily proceed than they could from usual bulk trapping sites. Electrical properties are observed as a function of polymer molecular weight, particle type, and deposition method. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ Wohltjen, H.; Snow, A.W. Anal. Chem. 70 947 (1998).