Electronic transport mechanisms in tetraphenyleprophyrin thin films

Thermally-evaporated thin films of tetraphenylporphyrin, TPP, with thickness range from (175 to 735) nm had been prepared. Annealing temperatures ranging from (273–473) K do not influence the amorphous structure of these films. The influence of environmental conditions: film thickness, temperature and frequency on the electrical properties of TPP thin films had been reported. It was found that dc conductivity increases with increasing temperature and film thickness. The extrinsic conduction mechanism is operating in temperature range of (293–380) K with activation energy of 0.13 eV. The intrinsic one is in temperatures >380 K via phonon assisted hopping of small polaron with activation energy of 0.855 eV. The ac electrical conductivity and dielectric relaxation in the temperature range (293–473) K and in frequency range (0.1–100) kHz had been also studied. It had been shown that theoretical curves generated from correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model gives the best fitting with experimental results. Analysis of these results proved that conduction occurs at low temperatures (300–370) K by phonon assisted hopping between localized states and it is performed by single polaron hopping process at higher temperatures. The temperature and frequency dependence of both the real and imaginary parts of dielectric constant had been reported.