Title:
Theoretical characterization of charge transport in organic molecular crystals
Theoretical characterization of charge transport in organic molecular crystals
Author(s)
Sánchez-Carrera, Roel S.
Advisor(s)
Brédas, Jean-Luc
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Abstract
In this thesis, a first-principles methodology to investigate the impact of electron-phonon interactions on the charge-carrier mobilities in organic molecular crystals has been developed. Well-known organic materials such as oligoacene and oligothienoacene derivatives were studied in detail. The nature of the intramolecular vibronic coupling in oligoacenes and oligothienoacenes was studied using an approach that combines high-resolution gas-phase photo-electron spectroscopy measurements with first-principles quantum-mechanical calculations. The electron interactions with optical phonons in oligoacene single crystals were investigated using both density functional theory and empirical force field methods. The low-frequency optical modes are found to play a significant role in dictating the temperature dependence of the charge-transport properties in the oligoacene crystals. The microscopic charge-transport parameters in the pentathienoacene, 1,4-diiodobenzene, and 2,6-diiodo-dithieno[3,2-<i>b</i>:2',3'-<i>d</i>]thiophene crystals were also investigated. It was found that the intrinsic charge transport properties in the pentathienoacene crystal might be higher than that in two benchmark high-mobility organic crystals, i.e., pentacene and sexithienyl. For 1,4-diiodobenzene crystal, a detailed quantum-mechanical study indicated that its high mobility is primarily associated with the iodine atoms. In the 2,6-diiododithieno[3,2-<i>b</i>:2',3'-<i>d</i>]thiophene crystal, the main source of electronic interactions were found along the π-stacking direction. For negatively charged carriers, the halogen-functionalized molecular crystals show a very large polaron binding energy, which suggests significantly low charge-transport mobility for electrons.
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Date Issued
2008-08-25
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Dissertation