Fabrication and characterization of pentacene-based transistors with a room-temperature mobility of 1.25 cm/Vs

Pentacene-based transistors produced by a novel neutral cluster beam deposition method were characterized, and the effects of the surface pretreatments were examined. Atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction showed that the cluster beams were quite efficient in growing high-quality, crystalline thin films on SiO₂ substrates at room-temperature without any thermal post-treatment, and that an amphiphilic surfactant, octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS), enhances the packing density and crystallinity significantly. The observed field-effect mobilities (μ_eff) were among the best reported thus far: 0.47 and 1.25 cm²/Vs for the OTS-untreated and -pretreated devices, respectively. The device performance was found to be consistent with the estimated trap density and activation energy, which were derived from the transport characteristics for the temperature dependence of μ_eff in the range of 10−300 K.