Nanoscale charge transport in an electroluminescent polymer investigated by conducting atomic force microscopy

Abstract

We report conducting atomic force microscopy study of nanoscale hole transport in an electroluminescent polymer. Imaging of current variation with a spatial resolution of around 20 nm is achieved. Local current–voltage measurements are performed and the mobilities obtained from space-charge-limited current analysis are two orders of magnitude higher than macroscopic results. A Poole–Frenkel plot shows a clear transition at a field of around 1.5×106 V/cm, which is consistent with reported values of polaron dissociation field.