Vertical Organic Tunnel Field-Effect Transistors

Abstract

Doping organic semiconductors has become a key technology to increase the performance of organic light-emitting diodes, solar cells, or field-effect transistors (OFETs). However, doping can be used not only to optimize these devices but also to enable new design principles as well. Here, a novel type of OFET is reported—the vertical organic tunnel field-effect transistor. Based on heterogeneously doped drain and source contacts, charge carriers are injected from an n-doped source electrode into the channel by Zener tunneling and are transported toward a p-doped drain electrode. The working mechanism of these transistors is discussed with the help of a tunnel model that takes energetic broadening of transport states in organic semiconductors and roughness of organic layers into account. The proposed device principle opens new ways to optimize OFETs. It is shown that the Zener junction included between the source and drain of the vertical organic tunnel field-effect transistors suppresses short channel effects and improves the saturation of vertical OFETs.