Demonstration of an ultra-high mobility organic polymer

Abstract

Abstract Experimental evidence is given for a high mobility (μ ∼ 20 m2 s−1 V−1) and a low field-saturated drift velocity (v d ∼ 2·2 × 103 m s−1) for carrier motion along a polymer chain. Photoconduction experiments in time domains from 10−9 to 102 seconds and fields from 102 V m−1 to 106 V m−1 are described. The polymer, the bis(p-toluene sulphonate) ester of 2,4-hexadiyne-1,6-diol, is a single crystal in which the conjugated semiconducting carbon chains are all parallel to each other. Carriers travel a distance approaching 1 mm along a chain before trapping at a defect. It is possible to cut the chains and detect the resulting reduction of range of carrier motion.