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Interaction of charge carriers with lattice vibrations in organic molecular semiconductors: Naphthalene as a case study

Interaction of charge carriers with lattice vibrations in organic molecular semiconductors: Naphthalene as a case study
Interaction of charge carriers with lattice vibrations in organic molecular semiconductors: Naphthalene as a case study
Recent theoretical studies suggest that the modulation of the electronic couplings (transfer integrals) between adjacent molecules by lattice vibrations, i.e., the so-called nonlocal electron?phonon coupling, plays a key role in the charge-transport properties of molecular organic semiconductors. However, a detailed understanding of this mechanism is still missing. Here, we combine density functional theory calculations and molecular mechanics simulations and use a chemistry-based insight to derive the nonlocal electron?phonon coupling constants due to the interaction of charge carriers with the optical lattice vibrations in the naphthalene crystal. The results point to a very strong coupling to both translational and librational intermolecular vibrational modes as well as to intramolecular modes. Along some crystal directions, the nonlocal interactions are found to be dominated by nontotally symmetric vibrational modes which lead to an alternation (Peierls-type dimerization) pattern. Importantly, we introduce two parameters that can be used: (i) to quantify the total strength of the nonlocal electron?vibration mechanism in the form of a reorganization energy term; and (ii) to define the extent of the thermal fluctuations of the electronic couplings. Interestingly, zero-point fluctuations are seen to be very significant.
1932-7447
4679-4686
Coropceanu, Veaceslav
1996828f-fdd8-414c-aa0b-a824a04dda3b
Sánchez-Carrera, Roel S.
5a409ff0-3934-47c4-a2f8-25c1591d24db
Paramonov, Pavel
92f68b39-1c6d-4e15-aa3a-723af9cf0b9c
Day, Graeme M.
e3be79ba-ad12-4461-b735-74d5c4355636
Brédas, Jean-Luc
3ef64229-0666-44d7-aed7-09543b04adbe
Coropceanu, Veaceslav
1996828f-fdd8-414c-aa0b-a824a04dda3b
Sánchez-Carrera, Roel S.
5a409ff0-3934-47c4-a2f8-25c1591d24db
Paramonov, Pavel
92f68b39-1c6d-4e15-aa3a-723af9cf0b9c
Day, Graeme M.
e3be79ba-ad12-4461-b735-74d5c4355636
Brédas, Jean-Luc
3ef64229-0666-44d7-aed7-09543b04adbe

Coropceanu, Veaceslav, Sánchez-Carrera, Roel S., Paramonov, Pavel, Day, Graeme M. and Brédas, Jean-Luc (2009) Interaction of charge carriers with lattice vibrations in organic molecular semiconductors: Naphthalene as a case study. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113 (11), 4679-4686. (doi:10.1021/jp900157p).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Recent theoretical studies suggest that the modulation of the electronic couplings (transfer integrals) between adjacent molecules by lattice vibrations, i.e., the so-called nonlocal electron?phonon coupling, plays a key role in the charge-transport properties of molecular organic semiconductors. However, a detailed understanding of this mechanism is still missing. Here, we combine density functional theory calculations and molecular mechanics simulations and use a chemistry-based insight to derive the nonlocal electron?phonon coupling constants due to the interaction of charge carriers with the optical lattice vibrations in the naphthalene crystal. The results point to a very strong coupling to both translational and librational intermolecular vibrational modes as well as to intramolecular modes. Along some crystal directions, the nonlocal interactions are found to be dominated by nontotally symmetric vibrational modes which lead to an alternation (Peierls-type dimerization) pattern. Importantly, we introduce two parameters that can be used: (i) to quantify the total strength of the nonlocal electron?vibration mechanism in the form of a reorganization energy term; and (ii) to define the extent of the thermal fluctuations of the electronic couplings. Interestingly, zero-point fluctuations are seen to be very significant.

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More information

Published date: 20 February 2009
Organisations: Organic Chemistry: Synthesis, Catalysis and Flow, Computational Systems Chemistry

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 343435
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/343435
ISSN: 1932-7447
PURE UUID: a11ccd8d-ea7b-491b-9701-d100822cea0d
ORCID for Graeme M. Day: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-8396-2771

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 08 Oct 2012 09:30
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:44

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Contributors

Author: Veaceslav Coropceanu
Author: Roel S. Sánchez-Carrera
Author: Pavel Paramonov
Author: Graeme M. Day ORCID iD
Author: Jean-Luc Brédas

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