Defect structural characterization of organic polymer layers

In this paper, we study the effect of blending the conducting polymers, P3HT with the fullerene complex PCBM on its structural and defect characteristics. The films were deposited on glass substrates by spin casting, and were characterized with positron annihilation, microscopy and other techniques with regard to thickness, and structural homogeneity. The unblended polymers have positron annihilation characteristics similar to most non-polar polymers, exhibiting a relatively broad electron momentum distribution, a long-lived (>1 ns) positron state corresponding to the formation of orthopositronium, and strong-localization of the positron. Blending with PCBM causes the sample electron momentum distribution to narrow, and results in a single state with a lifetime of around 370 ps in both polymer mixtures. We postulate that this state corresponds to annihilation with low-momentum electrons in the fullerene cage.