Highly enhanced charge injection in thienoacene-based organic field-effect transistors with chemically doped contact

We describe the mechanism of contact resistance reduction and improvement in device performance of organic field-effect transistors by chemical doping at the contact interface. Insertion of iron(III)trichloride into the contact interface significantly reduced the contact resistance from 200 to 8.8 kΩ cm at a gate voltage of −40 V, and a field-effect mobility of 7.0 cm²/V s was achieved in devices based on dioctylbenzothienobenzothiophene. The improved charge injection is attributable to a reduction in the depletion layer thickness at the contact interface and occupation of trap states in the access region due to the generation of charge carriers by contact doping.