Pentacene bottom-contact thin film transistors with solution-processed BZT gate dielectrics

Abstract The solution-processed high-k barium zirconate titanate (BZT) as gate dielectrics for bottom-gate pentacene-based organic thin film transistor (OTFT) applications is presented. To reduce the transistor threshold voltage, higher work function metals (Au) is used as the gate electrodes. The threshold voltage is efficiently decreased from −3.6 to −2.15 V as compared to that of Al. In addition, the UV/ozone was employed to treat the Au (source/drain) surface to improve the poor crystalline of pentacene grown on Au. Moreover, the surface morphologies and orientations of pentacene films were analyzed through atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction. As the results, the stack of pentacene molecules from disorder state changed to vertical growth on the Au surface. Finally, the electrical properties of pentacene-based thin film transistors exhibit high field-effect mobility of 4.5 cm 2 /V·s, low subthreshold swing of 260 mV/decade, high on/off ratio of 1.4 × 10 5 and low operation voltage of −5 V. These results are better than the reported data using bottom contact pentacene OTFTs.