Hole mobility and trapping in PVK films doped with CdSe/CdS and CdSe quantum dots

Experimental study of the hole mobility in polyvinylcarbazole (PVK) films doped with two kinds of nanocrystals, on bare core CdSe and core-shell CdSe/CdS quantum dots, with concentrations ranging from 3 · 10¹⁰ to 3 · 10¹⁵ cm⁻³, is presented. The quantum dots investigated were made using colloidal chemistry. The hole mobility was measured using the time-of-flight technique as a function of the applied electrical field in the range 10⁵–10⁶ V/cm and for temperatures from 20°C to 50°C. The transient curves, being featureless on a linear plot, show on a double logarithmic scale a sharp inflection point indicating a dispersive carrier drift process. The recovered values of the mobility are in the range 3 · 10⁻⁸–10⁻⁶ cm²·V⁻¹·s⁻¹ and their field and temperature dependences can be analyzed formally within the framework of the Gaussian disorder model proposed by Bässler. The energetic disorder is, within the experimental accuracy, independent of the concentration and type of quantum dots for the CdSe quantum dots at all concentrations and for the CdS/CdSe quantum dots up to 10¹⁴ cm⁻³. The spatial disorder factors are very large (from 5.3 to 8.7) and do not depend in a systematic way upon the type and concentration of quantum dots (QDs). The experiments show that the apparent mobility does not change considerably with concentration, but it was found that the samples with CdSe/CdS quantum dots at concentrations from 10¹⁵ to 3 · 10¹⁵ cm⁻³ show a decreased photocurrent response. The dependence of the time-integrated transients (corresponding to the full charge value) upon the quantum-dot concentration has been determined. Differences in total photogenerated charge for pure and doped polymer films imply that the quantum dots of that type are the hole traps with capture times much more smaller than the transit time and with emission times a few orders longer than the transit time. CdSe quantum dots without a shell do not seem to exhibit the same properties as core shells and do not produce considerable changes in the charge transfer, even at a density of 10¹⁵ cm⁻³.