Field-effect transistors based on organic single crystals grown by an improved vapor phase method

Abstract High-quality organic single crystals are produced directly onto the substrates using an improved vapor phase method. Unlike the conventional vapor phase methods, the present method is characterized by forming a large-sized crystal to which semiconductor devices can readily be made. The relevant method requires small space of only a ∼10-cm cube in which a couple of plates are put in close proximity. The crystal growth is carried out nearly at the thermodynamic equilibrium within the narrow space surrounded with the two plates. Thin single crystals of several hundreds of micrometers in size are grown on one of those plates. For the organic materials to be crystallized, we have chosen 1,4-bis(5-phenylthiophen-2-yl)benzene (AC5) and 5,5 ⁗ -diphenyl-2,2′:5′,2″:5″,2‴:5‴,2 ⁗ -quinquethiophene (P5T) from among thiophene/phenylene co-oligomers. The resulting crystals are well-defined polygons, each side reflecting the specific crystallographic orientation. In particular, those grown on self-assembled monolayers are exceedingly flat and free from cracks. We have directly fabricated top-contact field-effect transistors on these crystals. The devices exhibit the excellent performance and keep it both in air and in vacuum for a maximum of a hundred days.

[1]  J. Rogers,et al.  Elastomeric Transistor Stamps: Reversible Probing of Charge Transport in Organic Crystals , 2004, Science.

[2]  Takayuki Morikawa,et al.  Self‐Waveguided Gain‐Narrowing of Blue Light Emission from Epitaxially Oriented p‐Sexiphenyl Crystals , 2001 .

[3]  D. Yan,et al.  Heterojunction Ambipolar Organic Transistors Fabricated by a Two‐Step Vacuum‐Deposition Process , 2006 .

[4]  S. Hotta,et al.  Laser oscillation in a highly anisotropic organic crystal with a refractive index of 4.0 , 2008 .

[5]  C. Rovira,et al.  High mobility of dithiophene-tetrathiafulvalene single-crystal organic field effect transistors. , 2004, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[6]  S. Hotta,et al.  Synthesis of thiophene/phenylene co-oligomers. I. Phenyl-capped oligothiophenes , 2000 .

[7]  S. Hotta,et al.  Synthesis of thiophene/phenylene co-oligomers. II [1]. Block and alternating co-oligomers , 2000 .

[8]  R. A. Laudise,et al.  Vapor pressures of organic semiconductors:: α-hexathiophene and α-quaterthiophene , 1998 .

[9]  Takeo Kawase,et al.  Very high-mobility organic single-crystal transistors with in-crystal conduction channels , 2007 .

[10]  S. Hotta,et al.  Improved sublimation growth of single crystals of thiophene/phenylene co-oligomers , 2008 .

[11]  Zhenan Bao,et al.  High‐Performance Organic Single‐Crystal Transistors on Flexible Substrates , 2006 .

[12]  Takeshi Yamao,et al.  High Mobility and Luminescent Efficiency in Organic Single‐Crystal Light‐Emitting Transistors , 2009 .

[13]  Theo Siegrist,et al.  Single-crystal field-effect transistors based on copper phthalocyanine , 2005 .

[14]  Yoshio Taniguchi,et al.  Light Emission from Organic Single-Crystal Field-Effect Transistors , 2005 .

[15]  Janos Veres,et al.  Gate Insulators in Organic Field-Effect Transistors , 2004 .

[16]  D. Kumaki,et al.  Influence of H2O and O2 on threshold voltage shift in organic thin-film transistors: Deprotonation of SiOH on SiO2 gate-insulator surface , 2008 .

[17]  K. Yase,et al.  Epitaxial Growth of Thiophene/p‐Phenylene Co‐oligomers for Highly Polarized Light‐Emitting Crystals , 2001 .

[18]  S. Hotta,et al.  Direct formation of thin single crystals of organic semiconductors onto a substrate , 2007 .

[19]  H. Mimura,et al.  Strong luminescence from dislocation-free GaN nanopillars , 2004 .

[20]  S. Hotta,et al.  Anisotropic Refractive Indices of Organic Crystals of Thiophene/Phenylene Co-Oligomers Determined by Microspectroscopic Measurements , 2007 .

[21]  Stephen R. Forrest,et al.  Morphology control and material mixing by high-temperature organic vapor-phase deposition and its application to thin-film solar cells , 2005 .

[22]  N. S. Sariciftci,et al.  Heteroepitaxial growth of self-assembled highly ordered para -sexiphenyl films: A crystallographic study , 2001 .

[23]  S. Mannsfeld,et al.  Patterning of α-Sexithiophene Single Crystals with Precisely Controlled Sizes and Shapes , 2009 .

[24]  Yoshio Taniguchi,et al.  Laser Oscillation in Monolithic Molecular Single Crystals , 2005 .

[25]  Polarized blue light-emission from epitaxially oriented bis(phenyloxazolyl)benzene crystals , 2000 .

[26]  Hisao Yanagi,et al.  Organic Field-Effect Transistors Made of Epitaxially Grown Crystals of a Thiophene/Phenylene Co-oligomer , 2002 .

[27]  A. Lopez‐Otero,et al.  Hot wall epitaxy , 1978 .

[28]  N. S. Sariciftci,et al.  Random laser action in self-organized para-sexiphenyl nanofibers grown by hot-wall epitaxy , 2004 .

[29]  Ronald Österbacka,et al.  Operating principle of polymer insulator organic thin-film transistors exposed to moisture , 2005 .

[30]  Theo Siegrist,et al.  Physical vapor growth of centimeter-sized crystals of α-hexathiophene , 1997 .

[31]  Richard H. Friend,et al.  General observation of n-type field-effect behaviour in organic semiconductors , 2005, Nature.

[32]  Theo Siegrist,et al.  Physical vapor growth of organic semiconductors , 1998 .

[33]  Chihaya Adachi,et al.  Fabrication of ambipolar light-emitting transistor using high-photoluminescent organic single crystal , 2008, SPIE Photonics Europe.

[34]  Y. Masumoto,et al.  Microdisk and Microring Lasers of Thiophene–Phenylene Co‐Oligomers Embedded in Si/SiO2 Substrates , 2007 .

[35]  S. Im,et al.  Structural and optical properties of 6,13-pentacenequinone thin films , 2004 .