INTRINSIC CONDUCTIVITY OF CONDUCTING POLYMERS

Because the charged dopant ions are spatially separated from the quasi-one-dimensional conduction path in conducting polymers, resistive back scattering is suppressed. In the case of high molecular weight and relatively few sp**3 defects, even relatively weak interchain coupling is sufficient to avoid one-dimensinoal localization; this leads to coherent transport with a mean free path that is limited by either the mean separation between chain imperfections or by phonon scattering. The authors emphasize that although their results were presented in the context of polyacetylene, the conclusions are general and should be applicable to the entire class of conducting polymers.