Abstract
A core challenge in computational materials science is the prediction of materials properties from first principles and hence—in the context of molecular materials—from input chemical structures. In this chapter, we present a workflow for particle-based microscopic simulations of organic semiconductors that aims to achieve just that. It is tailored to the description of non-adiabatic charge transport. The workflow can be broken down into three steps: First, the material morphology is simulated at an atomistic level, using molecular dynamics or other particle-based models, including coarse-graining and backmapping techniques. Second, a charge transport network is constructed from the simulated morphology, built on a rate-based description, where the parametrization of the rates is achieved on a quantum or quantum-classical level. Third, kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations are used to derive macroscopic observables, notably charge-carrier mobilities, or simulate current-voltage characteristics of realistic devices either directly or via parametrization of continuous drift-diffusion models.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
A. Troisi, D.L. Cheung, D. Andrienko, Charge transport in semiconductors with multiscale conformational dynamics. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102(11), 116602 (2009)
T. Vehoff, Y.S. Chung, K. Johnston, A. Troisi, D.Y. Yoon, D. Andrienko, Charge transport in self-assembled semiconducting organic layers: role of dynamic and static disorder. J. Phys. Chem. C 114(23), 10592–10597 (2010)
D.P. McMahon, A. Troisi, Organic semiconductors: impact of disorder at different timescales. Chem. Phys. Chem. 11(10), 2067–2074 (2010)
V. Rühle, A. Lukyanov, F. May, M. Schrader, T. Vehoff, J. Kirkpatrick, B. Baumeier, D. Andrienko, Microscopic simulations of charge transport in disordered organic semiconductors. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 7(10), 3335–3345 (2011)
R.M. Martin, Electronic Structure: Basic Theory and Practical Methods (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2004). ISBN 0521782856
A. Szabo, N.S. Ostlund, Modern Quantum Chemistry: Introduction to Advanced Electronic Structure theory (Dover Publications, New York, 1996). ISBN 0486691861
R. Ditchfield, Self-consistent molecular-orbital methods. IX. an extended gaussian-type basis for molecular-orbital studies of organic molecules. J. Chem. Phys. 54(2), 724 (1971)
D. Frenkel, Understanding Molecular Simulation: From Algorithms to Applications. Computational Science Series, 2nd edn. (Academic Press, San Diego, 2002). ISBN 0122673514
H.J.C. Berendsen, J.P.M. Postma, W.F. van Gunsteren, A. DiNola, J.R. Haak, Molecular dynamics with coupling to an external bath. J. Chem. Phys. 81(8), 3684 (1984)
G. Bussi, D. Donadio, M. Parrinello, Canonical sampling through velocity rescaling. J. Chem. Phys. 126(1), 014101 (2007)
H.J.C. Berendsen, D. van der Spoel, R. van Drunen, GROMACS: a message-passing parallel molecular dynamics implementation. Comput. Phys. Commun. 91(1–3), 43–56 (1995)
W.L, Jorgensen, J. Tirado-Rives, The OPLS [optimized potentials for liquid simulations] potential functions for proteins, energy minimizations for crystals of cyclic peptides and crambin. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 110(6), 1657–1666 (1988)
D.J. Wales, J.P.K. Doye, Global optimization by basin-hopping and the lowest energy structures of Lennard-Jones clusters containing up to 110 atoms. J. Phys. Chem. A 101(28), 5111–5116 (1997)
C. Poelking, D. Andrienko, Effect of polymorphism, regioregularity and paracrystallinity on charge Transport in Poly(3-hexylthiophene) [P3ht] nanofibers. Macromolecules 46(22), 8941–8956 (2013)
C. Poelking, Charge Transport Simulations in Polymeric Semiconductors, MSc thesis, University of Heidelberg, 2013
D. Wynands, M. Erber, R. Rentenberger, M. Levichkova, K. Walzer, K.-J. Eichhorn, M. Stamm, Spectroscopic ellipsometry characterization of vacuum-deposited organic films for the application in organic solar cells. Org. Electron. 13(5), 885–893 (2012)
K. Kremer, F. Müller-Plathe, Multiscale simulation in polymer science. Mol. Simul. 28(8–9), 729–750 (2002)
A.P. Lyubartsev, A. Laaksonen, Calculation of effective interaction potentials from radial distribution functions: a reverse Monte Carlo approach. Phys. Rev. E 52(4), 3730–3737 (1995)
S. Izvekov, G.A. Voth, A multiscale coarse-graining method for biomolecular systems. J. Phys. Chem. B 109(7), 2469–2473 (2005)
M.S. Shell, The relative entropy is fundamental to multiscale and inverse thermodynamic problems. J. Chem. Phys. 129(14), 144108 (2008)
D.M. Huang, R. Faller, K. Do, A.J. Moulé, Coarse-grained computer simulations of polymer/fullerene bulk heterojunctions for organic photovoltaic applications. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 6(2), 526–537 (2010)
E. Jankowski, H.S. Marsh, A. Jayaraman, Computationally linking molecular features of conjugated polymers and fullerene derivatives to bulk heterojunction morphology. Macromolecules 46(14), 5775–5785 (2013)
K.N. Schwarz, T.W. Kee, D.M. Huang, Coarse-grained simulations of the solution-phase self-assembly of poly(3-hexylthiophene) nanostructures. Nanoscale 5(5), 2017 (2013)
A. Lukyanov, A. Malafeev, V. Ivanov, H.-L. Chen, K. Kremer, D. Andrienko, Solvated poly-(phenylene vinylene) derivatives: conformational structure and aggregation behavior. J. Mater. Chem. 20(46), 10475 (2010)
V. Rühle, J. Kirkpatrick, D. Andrienko, A multiscale description of charge transport in conjugated oligomers. J. Chem. Phys. 132(13), 134103–134109 (2010)
P. Gemünden, C. Poelking, K. Kremer, D. Andrienko, K.C. Daoulas, Nematic ordering, conjugation, and density of states of soluble polymeric semiconductors. Macromolecules 46(14), 5762–5774 (2013)
P. Gemünden, K.C. Daoulas, Fluctuation spectra in polymer nematics and Frank elastic constants: a coarse-grained modelling study. Soft Matter 11(3), 532–544 (2015)
P. Gemünden, C. Poelking, K. Kremer, K. Daoulas, D. Andrienko, Effect of mesoscale ordering on the density of states of polymeric semiconductors. Macromol. Rapid Commun. 36(11), 1047–1053 (2015)
V. May, O. Kühn, Charge and Energy Transfer Dynamics in Molecular Systems, 3rd edn. (Wiley-VCH, 2011). revised and enlarged edition edition, ISBN 3527407324
J.-L. Brédas, D. Beljonne, V. Coropceanu, J. Cornil, Charge-transfer and energy-transfer processes in \(\pi \)-conjugated oligomers and polymers: a molecular picture. Chem. Rev. 104(11), 4971–5004 (2004)
A. Troisi, Charge transport in high mobility molecular semiconductors: classical models and new theories. Chem. Soc. Rev. 40(5), 2347 (2011)
R.A. Marcus, On the theory of oxidation-reduction reactions involving electron transfer. I. J. Chem. Phys. 24(5), 966 (1956)
F. May, Charge-Transport Simulations in Organic Semiconductors. Ph.D. thesis, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 2012
J. Jortner, Temperature-dependent activation energy for electron transfer between biological molecules. J. Chem. Phys. 64(12), 4860 (1976)
K. Asadi, A.J. Kronemeijer, T. Cramer, L.J.A. Koster, P.W.M. Blom, D.M. de Leeuw, Polaron hopping mediated by nuclear tunnelling in semiconducting polymers at high carrier density. Nat. Commun. 4, 1710 (2013)
H. Grabert, U. Weiss, Quantum tunneling rates for asymmetric double-well systems with ohmic dissipation. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54(15), 1605–1608 (1985)
P.A.M. Fisher, A.T. Dorsey, Dissipative quantum tunneling in a biased double-well system at finite temperatures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 54(15), 1609–1612 (1985)
N. Vukmirovic, L.-W. Wang, Density of states and wave function localization in disordered conjugated polymers: a large scale computational study. J. Phys. Chem. B 115(8), 1792–1797 (2011)
T. Liu, A. Troisi, Understanding the microscopic origin of the very high charge mobility in PBTTT: tolerance of thermal disorder. Adv. Funct. Mater. 24(7), 925–933 (2014)
D. Porezag, T. Frauenheim, T. Köhler, G. Seifert, R. Kaschner, Construction of tight-binding-like potentials on the basis of density-functional theory: application to carbon. Phys. Rev. B 51(19), 12947–12957 (1995)
M. Elstner, D. Porezag, G. Jungnickel, J. Elsner, M. Haugk, T. Aernouts, S. Suhai, G. Seifert, Self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding method for simulations of complex materials properties. Phys. Rev. B 58(11), 7260–7268 (1998)
H. Ma, T. Qin, A. Troisi, Electronic excited states in amorphous MEH-PPV polymers from large-scale first principles calculations. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 10(3), 1272–1282 (2014)
T. Van Voorhis, T. Kowalczyk, B. Kaduk, L.-P. Wang, C.-L. Cheng, W. Qin, The diabatic picture of electron transfer, reaction barriers, and molecular dynamics. Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 61(1), 149–170 (2010)
W. Qin, T. Van Voorhis, Extracting electron transfer coupling elements from constrained density functional theory. J. Chem. Phys. 125(16), 164105 (2006)
B. Baumeier, J. Kirkpatrick, D. Andrienko, Density-functional based determination of intermolecular charge transfer properties for large-scale morphologies. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 12(36), 11103 (2010)
J. Kirkpatrick, An approximate method for calculating transfer integrals based on the ZINDO Hamiltonian. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 108(1), 51–56 (2008)
V. Coropceanu, J. Cornil, D.A. da Silva Filho, Y. Olivier, R. Silbey, J.L. Brédas, Charge transport in organic semiconductors. Chem. Rev. 107(4), 926–952 (2007)
D.T. Gillespie, A general method for numerically simulating the stochastic time evolution of coupled chemical reactions. J. Comput. Phys. 22(4), 403–434 (1976)
K.A. Fichthorn, W.H. Weinberg, Theoretical foundations of dynamical Monte Carlo simulations. J. Chem. Phys. 95(2), 1090 (1991)
A. Lukyanov, D. Andrienko, Extracting nondispersive charge carrier mobilities of organic semiconductors from simulations of small systems. Phys. Rev. B 82(19), 193202 (2010)
B. Baumeier, O. Stenzel, C. Poelking, D. Andrienko, V. Schmidt, Stochastic modeling of molecular charge transport networks. Phys. Rev. B 86(18) (2012)
S. Stodtmann, R.M. Lee, C.K.F. Weiler, A. Badinski, Numerical simulation of organic semiconductor devices with high carrier densities. J. Appl. Phys. 112(11), 114909 (2012)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Poelking, C.R. (2018). Particle-Based Models of Organic Semiconductors. In: The (Non-)Local Density of States of Electronic Excitations in Organic Semiconductors. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69599-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69599-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69598-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69599-0
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)