Revealing ionic motion molecular solids

Abstract

Thin films of mixed valence semiconductor copper-tetracyano-quinodimethane (Cu-TCNQ) and small molecule tris(8-hydroxyquinolinato)aluminum (Alq3) were investigated by current-voltage (I-V) and admittance (C-V,G-V) techniques in single-layer configuration with different combinations of electrodes. The predicted hysteresis of I-V curves and nearly constant loss (NCL) could be observed for both materials. When cycling devices between negative and positive biases, slowly decaying ionic transient currents interfere with steady-state currents and point to unidirectional motions of the ionic species with subsequent redox reaction at one of the electrodes. Plotting the frequency f dependence of the equivalent parallel capacitance at zero bias as log10C(0) versus log10(f), the dielectric behavior of Cu-TCNQ and Alq3 complies with the effective-medium model for NCL in ionic conductors [J. R. Macdonald J. Appl. Phys. 94, 558 (2003)]. It also holds for a similar plot of the equivalent parallel zero-bias conductance G(0). The nature of the revealed mobile ions is discussed with emphasis on their sources.