Orthogonal Ambipolar Semiconductor Nanostructures for Complementary Logic Gates

We report orthogonal ambipolar semiconductors that exhibit hole and electron transport in perpendicular directions based on aligned films of nanocrystalline “shish-kebabs” containing poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and N,N′-di-n-octyl-3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic diimide (PDI) as p- and n-type components, respectively. Polarized optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction measurements reveal a high degree of in-plane alignment. Relying on the orientation of interdigitated electrodes to enable efficient charge transport from either the respective p- or n-channel materials, we demonstrate semiconductor films with high anisotropy in the sign of charge carriers. Films of these aligned crystalline semiconductors were used to fabricate complementary inverter devices, which exhibited good switching behavior and a high noise margin of 80% of 1/2 Vdd. Moreover, complementary “NAND” and “NOR” logic gates were fabricated and found to exhibit excellent voltage transfer characteristics an...