Facile polymer gate dielectric surface-modification for organic thin-film transistors using self-assembled surfactant layer

Abstract We demonstrate facile polymer gate dielectric surface-modification method for organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs). We simply introduce self-assembled surfactant layer onto the top surface of poly(4-vinylphenol) (PVP) dielectric by spin coating PVP solution mixed with sodium dodecyl sulfate and tridecafluorohexane-1-sulfonic acid potassium salt as additive agents. The surfactant-modified PVP layer acquires various merits compared to pristine PVP layer in terms of surface smoothness and hydrophobicity, as confirmed by contact angle measurement, atomic force microscopy analyses, grazing incident X-ray diffraction and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. The resulting OTFTs with the conventional semiconducting poly(2,5-bis(3-hexadecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene) as the active layer and surfactant-modified PVP as the dielectric layer reveal overall ascendency over the OTFT with pristine PVP, especially in terms of operating hysteresis and reliability. The effects of hydrophobicity of surfactants on the surface properties of PVP as well as the OTFT performances are fully discussed in conjunction with various characterization tools.