N-Type 2D Organic Single Crystals for High-Performance Organic Field-Effect Transistors and Near-Infrared Phototransistors

Adv Mater. 2018 Apr;30(16):e1706260. doi: 10.1002/adma.201706260. Epub 2018 Mar 7.

Abstract

Organic field-effect transistors and near-infrared (NIR) organic phototransistors (OPTs) have attracted world's attention in many fields in the past decades. In general, the sensitivity, distinguishing the signal from noise, is the key parameter to evaluate the performance of NIR OPTs, which is decided by responsivity and dark current. 2D single crystal films of organic semiconductors (2DCOS) are promising functional materials due to their long-range order in spite of only few molecular layers. Herein, for the first time, air-stable 2DCOS of n-type organic semiconductors (a furan-thiophene quinoidal compound, TFT-CN) with strong absorbance around 830 nm, by the facile drop-casting method on the surface of water are successfully prepared. Almost millimeter-sized TFT-CN 2DCOS are obtained and their thickness is below 5 nm. A competitive field-effect electron mobility (1.36 cm2 V-1 s-1 ) and high on/off ratio (up to 108 ) are obtained in air. Impressively, the ultrasensitive NIR phototransistors operating at the off-state exhibit a very low dark current of ≈0.3 pA and an ultrahigh detectivity (D*) exceeding 6 × 1014 Jones because the devices can operate in full depletion at the off-state, superior to the majority of the reported organic-based NIR phototransistors.

Keywords: 2D; organic electronics; organic field-effect transistors; organic single crystals; phototransistors.