Optical properties of ultrathin poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) films at several doping levels studied by in situ electrochemical surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy

In this paper, we report on in situ optical/electrochemical investigations using a combination of surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and electrochemistry in order to determine the complex dielectric constants of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) thin films. The PEDOT films were deposited by in situ electropolymerization. The film thickness was monitored by a quartz crystal microbalance. In the electrochemical surface plasmon resonance (EC-SPR) measurements, three wavelengths corresponding to interband and intraband electronic transition regions were used in order to investigate electrochromic properties. The optical conductivity was also determined by EC-SPR measurement with a near-infrared laser wavelength which corresponds to the region outside the anomalous dispersion.