Photocurrent in conjugated polymers

Abstract

Nonlinear photocurrent carriers in conjugated polymers, such as polarons, bipolarons and solitons, are considered at low photon energies where a tunnelling process is necessary. We show that polarons usually dominate the photocurrent I due to a novel electric field assisted tunnelling for which ln(I) ~ -E^{-2/3}. For near degenerate polymers an electric field E which exceeds the confinement potential and frequencies above twice the soliton energy, soliton tunnelling is favored. Photocurrent data can then be used to identify the remarkable phenomenon of soliton conduction.