Influence of molecular structure and microstructure on device performance of polycrystalline pentacene thin-film transistors

The authors have fabricated the pentacene thin films on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and on silicon dioxide dielectric surfaces featuring similar surface energy and surface roughness. On both surfaces the pentacene films displayed high crystal quality from x-ray diffraction scans, although the film on PMMA had significantly smaller grain size. The pentacene transistors with PMMA exhibited excellent electrical characteristics, including high mobility of above 1.1 cm2 V s, on/off ratio above 106, and sharp subthreshold slope below 1 Vdecade. The analysis of molecular microstructure of the pentacene films provided a reasonable explanation for the high performance using resonance micro-Raman spectroscopy.