Electric field perturbed electron tunnelling in nonpolar organic glasses

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Isothermoluminescence (ITL) and electrophotoluminescence (EPL) resulting from electron–cation recombination are measured in a 2-methylpentane–methylcyclohexane glass. The ITL is more characteristic of quantum-mechanical tunnelling and the EPL signal is markedly stronger in this new glass than previous measurements in 3-methylpentane. Quantum-mechanical tunnelling theory is used to predict recombination rates of electrons in the potential field of a cation plus an applied field. Numerical integration of the nonhomogeneous kinetic equations resulting from a distribution of cation–electron separations leads to qualitative and quantitative predictions of the EPL signal that are observed experimentally. Fitting of the theory to experiment supports the conclusions that the angular distribution of the photoelectrons about the cations is close to isotropic, that the electrons active in ITL and EPL on the time scale of minutes are separated about 50 Å from their parent cation, and that the trap ionization potential in this nonpolar hydrocarbon glass is in the range of 0.5 to 0.7 eV.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: