Quantitative analysis of lattice disorder and crystallite size in organic semiconductor thin films

The crystallite size and cumulative lattice disorder of three prototypical, high-performing organic semiconducting materials are investigated using a Fourier-transform peak shape analysis routine based on the method of Warren and Averbach (WA). A thorough incorporation of error propagation throughout the multistep analysis and a weighted fitting of Fourier-transformed data to the WA model allows for more accurate results than typically obtained and for determination of confidence bounds. We compare results obtained when assuming two types of column-length distributions, and discuss the benefits of each model in terms of simplicity and accuracy. For strongly disordered materials, the determination of a crystallite size is greatly hindered because disorder dominates the coherence length, not finite size. A simple analysis based on trends of peak widths and Lorentzian components of pseudo-Voigt line shapes as a function of diffraction order is also discussed as an approach to more easily and qualitatively assess the amount and type of disorder present in a sample. While applied directly to organic systems, this methodology is general for the accurate deconvolution of crystalline size and lattice disorder for any material investigated with diffraction techniques. © 2011 American Physical Society.