Charge-transport physics of high-mobility molecular semiconductors

Abstract

This review is focused on understanding of the charge-transport physics of high-mobility organic semiconductors at a molecular level. We review recent high-mobility small-molecule and conjugated polymer materials with a focus on crystalline materials that have been able to exceed mobilities of 0.5-1cm2/Vs. We discuss some of the main, competing factors that govern charge transport in these materials and present theoretical approaches that have been developed to describe systems in which moderately strong intermolecular electronic interactions and strong electron-phonon interactions are present. Finally, we review recent experimental results that have aimed to address the important question of whether at room-temperature charge carriers in these high-mobility organic semiconductors are in fact simply extended Bloch electrons that undergo occasional scattering processes or are localized on individual molecules and move by hopping. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.