Simultaneous modification of bottom-contact electrode and dielectric surfaces for organic thin-film transistors through single-component spin-cast monolayers

An efficient process is developed by spin-coating a single-component, self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to simultaneously modify the bottom-contact electrode and dielectric surfaces of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). This effi cient interface modifi cation is achieved using n-alkyl phosphonic acid based SAMs to prime silver bottom-contacts and hafnium oxide (HfO₂) dielectrics in low-voltage OTFTs. Surface characterization using near edge X-ray absorption fi ne structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and spectroscopic ellipsometry suggest this process yields structurally well-defi ned phosphonate SAMs on both metal and oxide surfaces. Rational selection of the alkyl length of the SAM leads to greatly enhanced performance for both n-channel (C ₆₀) and p-channel (pentacene) based OTFTs. Specifi cally, SAMs of n-octylphos-phonic acid (OPA) provide both low-contact resistance at the bottom-contact electrodes and excellent interfacial properties for compact semiconductor grain growth with high carrier mobilities. OTFTs based on OPA modifi ed silver electrode/HfO₂ dielectric bottom-contact structures can be operated using <3V with low contact resistance (down to 700 Ohm-cm), low subthreshold swing (as low as 75 mV dec^-1), high on/off current ratios of 107, and charge carrier mobilities as high as 4.6 and 0.8 cm ² V^-1 s^-1, for C60 and pentacene, respectively. These results demonstrate that this is a simple and efficient process for improving the performance of bottom-contact OTFTs. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.