title: Polaron hopping mediated by nuclear tunnelling in semiconducting polymers at high carrier density.
abstract: The transition rate for a single hop of a charge carrier in a semiconducting polymer is assumed to be thermally activated. As the temperature approaches absolute zero, the predicted conductivity becomes infinitesimal in contrast to the measured finite conductivity. Here we present a uniform description of charge transport in semiconducting polymers, including the existence of absolute-zero ground-state oscillations that allow nuclear tunnelling through classical barriers. The resulting expression for the macroscopic current shows a power-law dependence on both temperature and voltage. To suppress the omnipresent disorder, the predictions are experimentally verified in semiconducting polymers at high carrier density using chemically doped in-plane diodes and ferroelectric field-effect transistors. The renormalized current-voltage characteristics of various polymers and devices at all temperatures collapse on a single universal curve, thereby demonstrating the relevance of nuclear tunnelling for organic electronic devices.
authors.affiliation: Philips Research Laboratories, High Tech Campus 4, Eindhoven 5656 AE, The Netherlands. kamal.asadi@philips.com
authors.forename: Kamal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Asadi
authors.forename: Auke J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kronemeijer
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cramer
authors.forename: L Jan Anton
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Koster
authors.forename: Paul W M
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Blom
authors.forename: Dago M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: de Leeuw