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We derive and investigate a stationary model for the electrothermal behavior of organic thin-film devices including their electrical and thermal environment. Whereas the electrodes are modeled by Ohm's law, the electronics of the organic device itself is described by a generalized van Roosbroeck system with temperature dependent mobilities and using Gauss--Fermi integrals for the statistical relation. The currents give rise to Joule heat which together with the heat generated by the generation/recombination of electrons and holes in the organic device occur as source terms in the heat flow equation that has to be considered on the whole domain. The crucial task is to establish that the quantities in the transfer conditions at the interfaces between electrodes and the organic semiconductor device have sufficient regularity. Therefore, we restrict the analytical treatment of the system to two spatial dimensions. We consider layered organic structures, where the physical parameters (total densities of transport states, LUMO and HOMO energies, disorder parameter, basic mobilities, activation energies, relative dielectric permittivity, heat conductivity) are piecewise constant. We prove the existence of weak solutions using Schauder's fixed point theorem and a regularity result for strongly coupled systems with nonsmooth data and mixed boundary conditions that is verified by Caccioppoli estimates and a Gehring-type lemma.

We derive a coarse-grained model for the electrothermal interaction of organic semiconductors. The model combines stationary drift-diffusion based electrothermal models with thermistor type models on subregions of the device and suitable transmission conditions. Moreover, we prove existence of a solution using a regularization argument and Schauder's fixed point theorem. In doing so, we extend recent work by taking into account the statistical relation given by the Gauss--Fermi integral and mobility functions depending on the temperature, charge-carrier density, and field strength, which is required for a proper description of organic devices.

The existence of a weak solution for an effective system of partial differential equations describing the electrothermal behavior of large-area organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) is proved. The effective system consists of the heat equation in the three-dimensional bulk glass substrate and two semi-linear equations for the current flow through the electrodes coupled to algebraic equations for the continuity of the electrical fluxes through the organic layers. The electrical problem is formulated on the (curvilinear) surface of the glass substrate where the OLED is mounted. The source terms in the heat equation are due to Joule heating and are hence concentrated on the part of the boundary where the current-flow equation is posed. The existence of weak solutions to the effective system is proved via Schauder's fixed-point theorem. Moreover, since the heat sources are a priori only in $L^1$, the concept of entropy solutions is used.

We prove existence of a weak solution for a hybrid model for the electro-thermal behavior of semiconductor heterostructures. This hybrid model combines an electro-thermal model based on drift-diffusion with thermistor type models in different subregions of the semiconductor heterostructure. The proof uses a regularization method and Schauder's fixed point theorem. For boundary data compatible with thermodynamic equilibrium we verify, additionally, uniqueness. Moreover, we derive bounds and higher integrability properties for the electrostatic potential and the quasi Fermi potentials as well as the temperature.

We present an electrothermal drift-diffusion model for organic semiconductor devices with Gauss-Fermi statistics and positive temperature feedback for the charge carrier mobilities. We apply temperature dependent Ohmic contact boundary conditions for the electrostatic potential and discretize the system by a finite volume based generalized Scharfetter-Gummel scheme. Using path-following techniques we demonstrate that the model exhibits S-shaped current-voltage curves with regions of negative differential resistance, which were only recently observed experimentally.

We discuss drift-diffusion models for charge-carrier transport in organic semiconductor devices. The crucial feature in organic materials is the energetic disorder due to random alignment of molecules and the hopping transport of carriers between adjacent energetic sites. The former leads to so-called Gauss-Fermi statistics, which describe the occupation of energy levels by electrons and holes. The latter gives rise to complicated mobility models with a strongly nonlinear dependence on temperature, density of carriers, and electric field strength. We present the state-of-the-art modeling of the transport processes and provide a first existence result for the stationary drift-diffusion model taking all of the peculiarities of organic materials into account. The existence proof is based on Schauder's fixed-point theorem. Finally, we discuss the numerical discretization of the model using finite-volume methods and a generalized Scharfetter-Gummel scheme for the Gauss-Fermi statistics.

Organic semiconductor devices show a pronounced interplay between temperature-activated conductivity and self-heating which in particular causes inhomogeneities in the brightness of large-area OLEDs at high power. We consider a 3D thermistor model based on partial differential equations for the electrothermal behavior of organic devices and introduce an extension to multiple layers with nonlinear conductivity laws, which also take the diode-like behavior in recombination zones into account. We present a numerical simulation study for a red OLED using a finite-volume approximation of this model. The appearance of S-shaped current-voltage characteristics with regions of negative differential resistance in a measured device can be quantitatively reproduced. Furthermore, this simulation study reveals a propagation of spatial zones of negative differential resistance in the electron and hole transport layers toward the contact.