Linking Electronic\nand Structural Disorder Parameters\nto Carrier Transport in a Modern Conjugated Polymer

Understanding charge transport in conjugated polymers\nis crucial\nfor the development of next-generation organic electronic applications.\nIt is presumed that structural disorder in conjugated polymers originating\nfrom their semicrystallinity, processing, or polymorphism leads to\na complex energetic landscape that influences charge carrier transport\nproperties. However, the link between polymer order parameters and\nenergetic landscape is not well established experimentally. In this\nwork, we successfully link statistical surveys of the local polymer\nelectronic structure with paracrystalline structural disorder, a measure\nof statistical fluctuations away from the ideal polymer packing structure.\nWe use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy to measure spatial\nvariability in electronic band edges in PM6 films, a high-performance\nconjugated polymer, and find that films with higher paracrystallinity\nexhibit greater electronic disorder, as expected. In addition, we\nshow that macroscopic charge carrier mobility in field effect transistors\nand and trap influence in hole-only diode devices is positively correlated\nwith these microscopic structural and electronic parameters.