Correlated charge carrier-like photoresponse of polymer nanowires

Abstract

Size confinement at nanometer length scales gives rise to many new and tunable properties of organic materials that are absent in their bulk state. Here we report, the appearance of large photoconduction property of a conducting polymer when it forms nanowires. The photoresponse and the external photoconductive gain were found to be >10⁵% and >200%, respectively, even at low bias (<1 V) voltage. These nanowires show a resistance switching transition at low temperature above a threshold bias and below this transition, the resistance changes by more than 3 orders of magnitude under illumination of light. The photoresponse increases superlinearly and the resistance switching threshold voltage decreases with increasing illumination intensity. These properties are absent in the bulk polymer, and the observed photoresponse is not bolometric or excitonic in nature, nor it can be explained by free carrier generation or Schöttky barrier modulation, rather it is consistent with the photoexcitation of correlated charge carriers.