Zinc Oxide Nanostructures and High Electron Mobility Nanocomposite Thin Film Transistors

Abstract

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> This paper reports on the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures and examines the performance of nanocomposite thin-film transistors (TFTs) fabricated using ZnO dispersed in both n- and p-type polymer host matrices. The ZnO nanostructures considered here comprise nanowires and tetrapods and were synthesized using vapor phase deposition techniques involving the carbothermal reduction of solid-phase zinc-containing compounds. Measurement results of nanocomposite TFTs based on dispersion of ZnO nanorods in an n-type organic semiconductor ([6, 6]-phenyl-<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\hbox{C}_{61}$</tex></formula>-butyric acid methyl ester) show electron field-effect mobilities in the range 0.3–0.6 <formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$\hbox{cm}^{2} \hbox{V}^{-1}\hbox{s}^{-1}$</tex></formula>, representing an approximate enhancement by as much as a factor of 40 from the pristine state. The on/off current ratio of the nanocomposite TFTs approach <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">$\hbox{10}^{6}$</tex></formula> at saturation with off-currents on the order of 10 pA. The results presented here, although preliminary, show a highly promising enhancement for realization of high-performance solution-processable n-type organic TFTs. </para>