Optical investigation of intra and interchain charge dynamics in conducting polymers

Reflectance measurements on tensile-drawn films of polypyrrole (PPy) doped with PF6 are analyzed in terms of intra and interchain contributions to the optical conductivity sigma(omega). The intrachain sigma(omega) is typical of a disordered Drude metal with sigma(omega --> 0) approximate to 2 x 10(3) S/cm, while the interchain a(w) is dominated by spectral features of strongly localized conductors, implying the interchain charge dynamics is incoherent. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.