Unraveling the temperature and voltage dependence of magnetic field effects in organic semiconductors

Abstract

In recent years, it was discovered that the current through an organic semiconductor, sandwiched between two non-magnetic electrodes, can be changed significantly by applying a small magnetic field. This surprisingly large magnetoresistance effect, often dubbed as organic magnetoresistance (OMAR), has puzzled the young field of organic spintronics during the last decade. Here, we present a detailed study on the voltage and temperature dependence of OMAR, aiming to unravel the lineshapes of the magnetic field effects and thereby gain a deeper fundamental understanding of the underlying microscopic mechanism. Using a full quantitative analysis of the lineshapes, we are able to extract all linewidth parameters and the voltage and temperature dependencies are explained with a recently proposed trion mechanism. Moreover, explicit microscopic simulations show a qualitative agreement to the experimental results. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.