title: Conducting polymers as electron glasses: surface charge domains and slow relaxation.
abstract: The surface potential of conducting polymers has been studied with scanning Kelvin probe microscopy. The results show that this technique can become an excellent tool to really 'see' interesting surface charge interaction effects at the nanoscale. The electron glass model, which assumes that charges are localized by the disorder and that interactions between them are relevant, is employed to understand the complex behavior of conducting polymers. At equilibrium, we find surface potential domains with a typical lateral size of 50 nm, basically uncorrelated with the topography and strongly fluctuating in time. These fluctuations are about three times larger than thermal energy. The charge dynamics is characterized by an exponentially broad time distribution. When the conducting polymers are excited with light the surface potential relaxes logarithmically with time, as usually observed in electron glasses. In addition, the relaxation for different illumination times can be scaled within the full aging model.
authors.affiliation: Dep. de Física - CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortuño
authors.affiliation: Dep. de Física - CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Escasain
authors.affiliation: Dep. Surfaces and Coatings, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid - CSIC (Campus Cantoblanco), E-28049 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lopez-Elvira
authors.affiliation: Dep. de Física - CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Andres M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Somoza
authors.affiliation: Dep. de Física - CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jaime
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Colchero
authors.affiliation: Dep. de Física - CIOyN, Universidad de Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Palacios-Lidon