Relaxation of Photogenerated Carriers in P3HT:PCBM Organic Blends

Abstract

The after-pulse time-resolved microwave conductivity (TRMC) decays observed in P3HT:PCBM blends display a dependence on time close to t(-beta), independent of excitation intensity, in the 10 ns-1 micros range. This is explained in terms of the relaxation of carriers in a Gaussian density of states (DOS). The model is based on a demarcation level that moves with time by thermal release and retrapping of initially trapped carriers. The model shows that when the disorder is large the after-pulse decay of the type t(-beta) is obtained, while at low disorder and large temperature the carrier distribution becomes independent of time. In the measurements different beta values were observed depending on the solvent used for spin-coating: 0.4-0.6 for chlorobenzene and 0.3-0.4 for toluene. The model was applied to extract the shape of the DOS from the TRMC decays, giving a dispersion parameter of about 120 meV for blends with high P3HT content.