Free-Standing 2D Hexagonal Aluminum Nitride Dielectric Crystals for High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors

The existence of defects and traps in a transistor plays an adverse role on efficient charge transport. In response to this challenge, extensive research has been conducted on semiconductor crystalline materials in the past decades. However, the development of dielectric crystals for transistors is still in its infancy due to the lack of appropriate dielectric crystalline materials and, most importantly, the crystal morphology required by the gate dielectric layer, which is also crucial for the construction of high-performance transistor as it can greatly improve the interfacial quality of carrier transport path. Here, a new type of dielectric crystal of hexagonal aluminum nitride (AlN) with the desired 2D morphology of combing thin thickness with large lateral dimension is synthesized. Such a suitable morphology in combination with the outstanding dielectric properties of AlN makes it promising as a gate dielectric for transistors. Furthermore, ultrathin 2,6-diphenylanthracene molecular crystals with only a few molecular layers can be prepared on AlN crystal via van der Waals epitaxy. As a result, this all-crystalline system incorporating dielectric and semiconductor crystals greatly enhances the overall performance of a transistor, indicating the importance of minimizing defects and preparing high-quality semiconductor/dielectric interface in a transistor configuration.