Analysis of negative capacitance and self-heating in organic semiconductor devices

In admittance spectroscopy of organic semiconductor devices, negative capacitance values arise at low frequency and high voltages. This study aims at explaining the influence of self-heating on the frequency-dependent capacitance and demonstrates its impact on steady-state and dynamic experiments. Therefore, a one dimensional numerical drift-diffusion model extended by the heat equation is presented. We calculate the admittance with two approaches: a Fourier method that is applied to time domain data and a numerically efficient sinusoidal steady state analysis (S(3)A), which is based on the linearization of the equations around the operating point. The simulation results coincide well with the experimental findings from reference [H. Okumoto and T. Tsutsui, Appl. Phys. Express 7, 061601 (2014)] where the negative capacitance effect of an organic device becomes weaker with better cooling of the structure. Linking the frequency- and time-domain with the Fourier approach supports an effortless interpretation of the negative capacitance. Namely, we find that negative capacitance originates from self-heating induced current enhancement. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.