Unusual anisotropic response of the charge carrier mobility to uniaxial mechanical strain in Rubrene crystals

TL;DR

This study reveals that uniaxial mechanical strain in Rubrene crystals causes anisotropic changes in charge carrier mobility, with unexpected enhancements when strain is applied perpendicular to the transport direction, highlighting the importance of wave-function overlap.

Contribution

It demonstrates the anisotropic and counterintuitive effects of uniaxial strain on charge mobility in Rubrene crystals, emphasizing the role of wave-function overlap variations.

Findings

Mobility increases with compressive strain by -1.5 cm²/Vs per percent.

Mobility improves more when strain is perpendicular to transport direction.

Trap state density remains unchanged under strain.

Abstract

Charge transport in Rubrene single crystals under uniaxial mechanical strain is systematically investigated in the crystal's two in-plane transport directions both under tensile and compressive strain applied parallel or perpendicular to the current direction. The density of trap states remains unchanged. The field-effect mobility as a benchmark figures for intermolecular transport is found to increase with compressive strain and vice versa with a magnitude of -1.5 cm2/Vs per percent of strain independently of tranport direction. A very remarkable result is the mobility change when the crystal is strained perpendicular to the transport direction. While this enhancement could be quantitatively explained from an improved wave-function overlap, mobility in the perpendicular direction improves even more, contrary to simple geometric considerations based od later expansion and usual Poisson ratios. This result emphasises the central role of the stress induced variations of the dynamics wave function overlap in organic molecular crystals.