Enhanced Charge Injection Properties of Organic Field-Effect Transistor by Molecular Implantation Doping

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have been widely studied due to their merits such as mechanical flexibility, solution processability, and large-area fabrication. However, OSC devices still have to overcome contact resistance issues for better performances. Because of the Schottky contact at the metal-OSC interfaces, a non-ideal transfer curve feature often appears in the low-drain voltage region. To improve the contact properties of OSCs, there have been several methods reported, including interface treatment by self-assembled monolayers and introducing charge injection layers. Here, a selective contact doping of 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F₄ -TCNQ) by solid-state diffusion in poly(2,5-bis(3-hexadecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) (PBTTT) to enhance carrier injection in bottom-gate PBTTT organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is demonstrated. Furthermore, the effect of post-doping treatment on diffusion of F₄ -TCNQ molecules in order to improve the device stability is investigated. In addition, the application of the doping technique to the low-voltage operation of PBTTT OFETs with high-k gate dielectrics demonstrated a potential for designing scalable and low-power organic devices by utilizing doping of conjugated polymers.