Optoelectronic Properties and Nanostructure Formation of σ-Conjugated Polymers

Abstract

This paper reviews recent studies on the opto-electronic properties of σ-conjugated polymers as well as the nanostructure formation based on the polymeric materials by the single particle nanofabrication technique. The direct quantitative correlation has been found between backbone conformation of σ-conjugated polymers and delocalization of charge carriers along their conjugated backbones by transient spectroscopy of the ion radicals. The microwave conductivity measurement technique was applied to estimate the intra-chain mobility of the charge carriers, giving the value of isotropic mobility holes along the chains as ca. 10−1 cm2 V−1 s−1. This is suggestive that the potentials of rod-like conjugated backbones in polysilanes as 1-D semiconductor are competitive to those of amorphous silicon. Cross-linking reaction of the σ-conjugated polymers was firstly promoted by charged particle irradiation to the thin films in the present study. Non-homogeneous cross-linking reaction in the polymers gives clear nanowires whose sizes, length, and number density are fairly controlled by selecting particles, molecular weights, etc. We believe that the present technique is applicable to produce wire-like nanostructures based on a variety of polymeric materials via the simple cross-linking reaction schema.