Temperature dependence of the phototransport properties in C60 films

Solid C60 is a semiconductor with very special properties which are sensitive to its preparation conditions. Very little is known about the forbidden gap states and about the recombination centers in this material. An attempt is made in this paper to deduce information on the latter from the temperature dependences of the photoconductivity and the corresponding light intensity exponent that were measured on C60 films. This attempt combines a comparison of the experimental results with numerical simulation of a simple model. It is concluded that oxygen centers play a major role in the electronic structure of solid C60. These centers are acceptor-like, they act as compensators to the shallow donors and they result in recombination centers which lie 0.3 eV below the conduction band edge. It is further concluded that the oxygen suppresses the well-known phase transition that occurs around 260°C by prohibiting the expansion of the lattice upon the increase of temperature.