Ambient induced degradation and chemically activated recovery in copper phthalocyanine thin film transistors

The electrical degradation (aging) of copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) organic thin film transistors (OTFTs) was investigated. Thick (1000 ML) and ultrathin (4 ML) channel thicknesses were used in bottom contact OTFTs to correlate the electrical effects of aging with film microstructure. Proper TFT saturation behavior was unattainable in thick devices subject to ambient aging; however ultrathin devices were significantly less susceptible and maintained good saturation and subthreshold behavior. Therefore 1000 monolayer (ML) CuPc OTFTs were characterized in ambient air, clean dry air, clean humidified air, and $NOx$ environments to isolate the ambient components that induce aging. Thick channel devices which had been aged in ambient air to the point of losing all saturation behavior could be restored to proper saturation behavior by exposure to clean humidified air. The data are consistent with aging resulting primarily from adsorption of strong oxidants from ambient air within the grain boundaries of the CuPc films.