A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors

Zachary A. Lamport; Katrina J. Barth; Hyunsu Lee; Eliot Gann; Sebastian Engmann; Hu Chen; Martin Guthold; Iain McCulloch; John E. Anthony; Lee J. Richter; Dean M. DeLongchamp; Oana D. Jurchescu

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3

A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors

Zachary A. Lamport, Katrina J. Barth, Hyunsu Lee, Eliot Gann, Sebastian Engmann, Hu Chen, Martin Guthold, Iain McCulloch, John E. Anthony, Lee J. Richter, Dean M. DeLongchamp, Oana D. Jurchescu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

109 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels of enhanced injection. We find that the method is effective for both organic small molecule and polymer semiconductors, where we achieved a contact resistance as low as 200 Ωcm and device charge carrier mobilities as high as 20 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, independent of the applied gate voltage.

Original language	English
Article number	5130
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3
State	Published - Dec 1 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, The Author(s).

Funding

The work at WFU was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF ECCS-1254757 and NSF DMR-1627925). I.M. acknowledges funding from EC FP7 Project SC2 (610115), and EPSRC project EP/M005143/1. J.E.A. acknowledges NSF DMR-1627428 for support of organic semiconductor synthesis. L.J.R. acknowledges use of the D1 beam line at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF DMR-0225180) and NIH-NIGMS and thanks Detlef Smilgies for support with the μ GIWAXS measurements. MG acknowledges support from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center to purchase the Asylum AFM (grant 2014-IDG-1012).

Funders	Funder number
EC FP7 Project SC2	610115
NIH/NIGMS
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program	DMR-1627925, ECCS-1254757
North Carolina Biotechnology Center	2014-IDG-1012
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	DMR-1627428, DMR-0225180, EP/M005143/1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3

Cite this

@article{d5dbed4cfa524db680b7cb28868afee4,

title = "A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors",

abstract = "Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels of enhanced injection. We find that the method is effective for both organic small molecule and polymer semiconductors, where we achieved a contact resistance as low as 200 Ωcm and device charge carrier mobilities as high as 20 cm2V−1s−1, independent of the applied gate voltage.",

author = "Lamport, \{Zachary A.\} and Barth, \{Katrina J.\} and Hyunsu Lee and Eliot Gann and Sebastian Engmann and Hu Chen and Martin Guthold and Iain McCulloch and Anthony, \{John E.\} and Richter, \{Lee J.\} and DeLongchamp, \{Dean M.\} and Jurchescu, \{Oana D.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018, The Author(s).",

year = "2018",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3",

language = "English",

volume = "9",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors

AU - Lamport, Zachary A.

AU - Barth, Katrina J.

AU - Lee, Hyunsu

AU - Gann, Eliot

AU - Engmann, Sebastian

AU - Chen, Hu

AU - Guthold, Martin

AU - McCulloch, Iain

AU - Anthony, John E.

AU - Richter, Lee J.

AU - DeLongchamp, Dean M.

AU - Jurchescu, Oana D.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels of enhanced injection. We find that the method is effective for both organic small molecule and polymer semiconductors, where we achieved a contact resistance as low as 200 Ωcm and device charge carrier mobilities as high as 20 cm2V−1s−1, independent of the applied gate voltage.

AB - Efficient injection of charge carriers from the contacts into the semiconductor layer is crucial for achieving high-performance organic devices. The potential drop necessary to accomplish this process yields a resistance associated with the contacts, namely the contact resistance. A large contact resistance can limit the operation of devices and even lead to inaccuracies in the extraction of the device parameters. Here, we demonstrate a simple and efficient strategy for reducing the contact resistance in organic thin-film transistors by more than an order of magnitude by creating high work function domains at the surface of the injecting electrodes to promote channels of enhanced injection. We find that the method is effective for both organic small molecule and polymer semiconductors, where we achieved a contact resistance as low as 200 Ωcm and device charge carrier mobilities as high as 20 cm2V−1s−1, independent of the applied gate voltage.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057606266&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85057606266&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3

DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-07388-3

M3 - Article

C2 - 30510263

AN - SCOPUS:85057606266

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 9

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 5130

ER -

A simple and robust approach to reducing contact resistance in organic transistors

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this