Backbone rigidity of conjugated polymers is suggested to play an essential role in realizing high-mobility transistors through the efficient interconnection of crystalline domains by tie molecules as discussed for the recently-developed donor-acceptor (DA)-type copolymers. However, no studies have directly observed interdomain hopping in these DA copolymers. Here, highly-efficient interdomain charge transport is observed in two typical high-mobility DA copolymers from the microscopic observation of charge carriers using field-induced electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. The in-plane ESR signal exhibits a clear motional narrowing effect associated with the carrier motion across the boundaries. The activation energy of the interdomain charge motion is as low as that of intradomain motion (~10 meV), both of which are clearly lower than those observed in the conventional semicrystalline polymer. The structural origin of this efficient interdomain electrical connection is the rigid, nearly torsion-free backbone conformation of the tie molecule, as demonstrated from density functional theory calculations.

Charge carrier dynamics in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) of semicrystalline conducting polymers poly(2,5-bis(3-hexadecylthiophene-2yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PBTTT) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) have been investigated down to 4 K by field-induced electron spin resonance (FI-ESR) spectroscopy. The highly mobile nature of charge carriers within the ordered regions of the polymers has been clarified from the observation of the motional narrowing effect of the ESR spectra even below 30 K, where device operation cannot be observed presumably owing to the effect of domain boundaries. The activation energy of carrier motion observed by ESR has been determined as 17 meV for PBTTT and 13 meV for P3HT, which are an order of magnitude smaller than that of FET mobility (>110 meV) obtained for the same devices. These results demonstrate that the intrinsic carrier mobility within the ordered region is much higher than that expected from the macroscopic transport measurements in the semicrystalline polymers.