The critical role of energetic fluctuations in charge separation for efficient molecular doping of organic semiconductors

Molecular doping is essential to improve the electrical conductivity of organic semiconductors for high-performance organic electronic devices. However, the doping efficiency is influenced by several factors, such as the energy levels, energetic fluctuations, dielectric properties, and molecular packing structures of the doped films, and the underlying mechanisms for high-efficiency doping are still unclear. Here, through multi-level theoretical simulations on a series of fullerene derivatives, we identify that the energetic fluctuations can play a decisive role in activating charge separation for molecular doping. In particular, the doping efficiency appears to be exponentially increased with the fluctuation of charge polarization energies. Therefore, although the charge mobility is somewhat decreased, the experimental electrical conductivity is improved with the increased energetic fluctuation. Moreover, it has been found that polarization energy fluctuation can be effectively enhanced by simply introducing side chains with greater flexibility into organic semiconductors. This article paves the way towards high-efficiency molecular doping of organic semiconductors.