Stijn Verlaak

Influence of the dielectric roughness on the performance of pentacene transistors

The properties of the dielectric strongly influence the performance of organic thin-film transistors. In this letter, we show experimental results that quantify the influence of the roughness of the dielectric on the mobility of pentacene transistors and discuss the cause of it. We consider the movement of charge carriers out of the “roughness valleys” or across those valleys at the dielectric–semiconductor interface as the limiting step for the roughness-dependent mobility in the transistor channel.

Modeling of transport in polycrystalline organic semiconductor films

We propose a grain-boundary barrier model with an energy distribution of interfacial traps to describe charge transport in polycrystalline organic thin films. The model is applied to the interpretation of charge transport in unintentionally doped pentacene films. It gives an acceptable explanation for the concomitant increase in threshold voltage and mobility, and allows an understanding of the difference between the dopant-concentration and gate-voltage dependences of the mobility.

Correlation between bias stress instability and phototransistor operation of pentacene thin-film transistors

The authors study the use of pentacene thin-film transistors as phototransistors. The shift in turn-on voltage (Von), responsible for the high photosensitivity of these devices, is shown to be strongly dependent on illumination time and applied gate voltage. The time dependence of this process is similar to the shift in Von during bias stress experiments in the dark, and illumination can simply be accounted for as an acceleration factor for bias stress instability. By comparing the characteristics of devices with different gate dielectrics, trapping of electrons by OH groups at the gate dielectric interface is indicated as a main origin for these shifts.

Unraveling the Mechanism of Molecular Doping in Organic Semiconductors

The mechanism by which molecular dopants donate free charge carriers to the host organic semiconductor is investigated and is found to be quite different from the one in inorganic semiconductors. In organics, a strong correlation between the doping concentration and its charge donation efficiency is demonstrated. Moreover, there is a threshold doping level below which doping simply has no electrical effect.

Exploring the Energy Landscape of the Charge Transport Levels in Organic Semiconductors at the Molecular Scale

The extraordinary semiconducting properties of conjugated organic materials continue to attract attention across disciplines including materials science, engineering, chemistry, and physics, particularly with application to organic electronics. Such materials are used as active components in light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, or photovoltaic cells, as a substitute for (mostly Si-based) inorganic semiconducting materials. Many strategies developed for inorganic semiconductor device building (doping, p-n junctions, etc.) have been attempted, often successfully, with organics, even though the key electronic and photophysical properties of organic thin films are fundamentally different from those of their bulk inorganic counterparts. In particular, organic materials consist of individual units (molecules or conjugated segments) that are coupled by weak intermolecular forces. The flexibility of organic synthesis has allowed the development of more efficient opto-electronic devices including impressive improvements in quantum yields for charge generation in organic solar cells and in light emission in electroluminescent displays. Nonetheless, a number of fundamental questions regarding the working principles of these devices remain that preclude their full optimization. For example, the role of intermolecular interactions in driving the geometric and electronic structures of solid-state conjugated materials, though ubiquitous in organic electronic devices, has long been overlooked, especially when it comes to these interfaces with other (in)organic materials or metals. Because they are soft and in most cases disordered, conjugated organic materials support localized electrons or holes associated with local geometric distortions, also known as polarons, as primary charge carriers. The spatial localization of excess charges in organics together with low dielectric constant (ε) entails very large electrostatic effects. It is therefore not obvious how these strongly interacting electron-hole pairs can potentially escape from their Coulomb well, a process that is at the heart of photoconversion or molecular doping. Yet they do, with near-quantitative yield in some cases. Limited screening by the low dielectric medium in organic materials leads to subtle static and dynamic electronic polarization effects that strongly impact the energy landscape for charges, which offers a rationale for this apparent inconsistency. In this Account, we use different theoretical approaches to predict the energy landscape of charge carriers at the molecular level and review a few case studies highlighting the role of electrostatic interactions in conjugated organic molecules. We describe the pros and cons of different theoretical approaches that provide access to the energy landscape defining the motion of charge carriers. We illustrate the applications of these approaches through selected examples involving OFETs, OLEDs, and solar cells. The three selected examples collectively show that energetic disorder governs device performances and highlights the relevance of theoretical tools to probe energy landscapes in molecular assemblies.

Patterned growth of pentacene

We propose a way of patterning organic small molecule thin films without requiring a hardmask and therefore more compatible with printing technologies. Active and passive areas for transistors are predefined by different surface chemistries. The subsequent growth takes place under conditions that cause the formation of a high mobility two-dimensional film in the active area and a disconnected three-dimensional film or no film in the passive area. This concept is founded on the basic theory of nucleation of organic small molecules on inert substrates and applied to the growth of patterned pentacene layers.

Design of an organic pixel addressing circuit for an active-matrix OLED display

In this paper, we present a design of a flat-panel display (FPD) based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and on organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). Addressing mode, circuit topology, layout, and drive scheme are developed in order to reach the desired frame rate and to control the gray levels against the threshold voltage dispersions of OTFTs and OLEDs. The design shows that the current OLED and OTFT technology are suitable for FPD technology, though setting serious constraints on driver design.

Pentacene devices and logic gates fabricated by organic vapor phase deposition

An organic vapor phase deposition (OVPD) tool has been developed and optimized for the deposition of pentacene thin films. Pentacene is grown with a good thickness uniformity, a good material consumption efficiency, and deposition rates up to 9.5 A/s. Top-contact transistors based on OVPD-grown pentacene show high mobilities (up to 1.35 cm(2)/V s) and excellent characteristics, even at high deposition rates. Elementary circuit blocks have also been produced using an OVPD-deposited pentacene film. A five-stage ring oscillator features a stage delay of 2.7 mu s at a supply voltage of 22 V. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Numerical simulation of tetracene light-emitting transistors: A detailed balance of exciton processes

We assess the possibility to use an ambipolar organic light-emitting transistor structure as gain medium for an electrically pumped laser. Singlet and triplet continuity equations are solved together with Poissons and drift-diffusion equations in two dimensions. The solution allows for a detailed balance between the exciton decay, quenching and generation mechanisms. Simulations of a tetracene light-emitting transistor show that triplets are most dominant in quenching singlets. Singlet–triplet quenching can ultimately prevent pure tetracene crystals or films—when provided with a realistic optical feedback structure, to reach the threshold for stimulated emission.

Self-aligned surface treatment for thin-film organic transistors

For organic thin-film transistors where source-drain contacts are defined on the gate dielectric prior to the deposition of the semiconductor (“bottom-contact” configuration), the gate dielectric is often treated with a self-assembled molecular monolayer prior to deposition of the organic semiconductor. In this letter, we describe a method to apply an ultrathin solution-processed polymer layer as surface treatment. Our method is compatible with the use of the bottom-contact configuration, despite the fact that the polymeric surface treatment does not stand a photolithographic step. Furthermore, we show that our surface treatment results in superior transistor performance.