Room Temperature Fabrication of High Quality ZrO₂Dielectric Films for High Performance Flexible Organic Transistor Applications

Abstract

By using low-cost solution process and ultraviolet(UV) irradiation, we successfully fabricated high-quality ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> films at room temperature. The ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> films obtained with 1-h UV curing showed a very low leakage current (1.7 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-6</sup> A/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> at -3 V), a high breakdown electric field 7.9 MV/cm, a high bandgap (6.13 eV), and a high dielectric constant (17.8). The organic thin-film transistor made by solution-processed ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> gate dielectric shows a greatly reduced operation voltage of 4 V, and a high drain current on/off ratio of 3.1 × 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sup> . Furthermore, we also clarified the electronic structures of ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> films with UV cured or thermal annealing.This letter demonstrated that solution-processable ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> film is promising for applications in future low power consumption electronic devices.