Effect of uniaxial compression on traps of excitons and charge carriers in poly(9-vinylcarbazole) films

The effect of uniaxial pressure (1 × 10⁸ Pa) on the photoluminescence spectra and thermally stimulated luminescence curves of poly(9-vinylcarbazole) has been investigated in the temperature range of 5–295 K. The thermally stimulated luminescence curve of crystalline carbazole has been measured for comparison. The high-temperature wings of the thermally stimulated luminescence curves are approximated by a Gaussian function, the half-width of which characterizes the disorder of energy states of deep structural traps. It is concluded that the pressure inhibits conformational changes of polymer chains of poly(9-vinylcarbazole), which leads to the formation of sandwich-like excimers as well as to an ordering of the spatial arrangement of the side carbazolyl groups. As a result, the concentration of “excimer-forming” centers increases, whereas the degree of disorder of energy states of deep structural traps of charge carriers is reduced by almost half and remains unchanged after the depressurization.