Understanding electrical-thermal transport characteristics of organic semiconductors: Violation of Wiedemann-Franz law

Organic semiconductors exhibit plenty of attractive properties for use as thermoelectric elements. A comprehensive understanding for the electrical-thermal transport characteristics is crucial to design and fabricate the thermoelectric device. We proposed a theoretical model to investigate the electrical conductivity and the electronic thermal conductivity of organic semiconductors based on the hopping transport mechanism. The electrical-thermal transport characteristics of organic semiconductors have been analyzed in detail and compared with the experimental results and Monte Carlo simulation. The Wiedemann-Franz law, connecting the electronic thermal conductivity to the electrical conductivity of organic semiconductors, is generally found to be strongly violated under the effect of temperature, carrier concentration, energetic disorder and electric field. Published by AIP Publishing.