Electrical transport and switching properties of polythiophene based water soluble conducting polymer at nano scale

A water soluble polythiophene based conducting polymer has an extremely important impact on the current and future technological advances. Electrical transport and switching properties of a polythiophene based water soluble conducting polymer have been investigated using a novel home-made four probe nanomanipulator with ultra sharp probes at nano scale. Memory effect and switching phenomenon has been observed at true nano scale with a planer type electrode arrangement using I--V and C--V characteristics and impedance spectroscopy. A two terminal device involving this water soluble conducting polymer was tested for its humidity response for its possible use as a humidity sensor. In this thesis study an effort has been made to study a water soluble polythiophene based conducting polymer for its applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. In order to determine the performance of futuristic devices it gains a tremendous importance to verify different characteristics of the functional polymer. The above said polymer is tested and characterized using variety of characterization methods like impedance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, I--V measurements on micro and nanoscale. The surface morphological studies were carried out using STM. All the characterization results confirm the possible application of the SPBS in electronic and optoelectronic devices. The SPBS based two and three terminal devices can be used as humidity sensor. The outcome of this research study would help the research community in making the physical device designs for variety of applications.