Electron Trapping and Transport in Poly(tetraphenyl)silole Siloxane of Quantum Well Structure

A new kind of organic-inorganic hybrid polymer, poly(tetraphenyl)silole siloxane (PSS), was invented and synthesized for realization of its unique charge trap properties. The organic portions consisting of (tetraphenyl)silole rings are responsible for electron trapping owing to their low-lying LUMO, while the Si-O-Si inorganic linkages of high HOMO-LUMO gap provide the intrachain energy barrier for controlling electron transport. Such an alternation of the organic and inorganic moieties in a polymer may give an interesting quantum well electronic structure in a molecule. The PSS thin film was fabricated by spin-coating of the PSS solution in THF organic solvent onto Si-wafer substrates and curing. The electron trapping of the PSS thin films was confirmed by the capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements performed within the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) device structure. And the quantum well electronic structure of the PSS thin film, which was thought to be the origin of the electron trapping, was investigated by a combination of theoretical and experimental methods: density functional theory (DFT) calculations in Gaussian03 package and spectroscopic techniques such as near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS) and photoemission spectroscopy (PES). The electron trapping properties of the PSS thin film of quantum well structure are closely related to intra- and inter-polymer chain electron transports. Among them, the intra-chain electron transport was theoretically studied using the Atomistix Toolkit (ATK) software based on the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method in conjunction with the DFT.