Impact of Energetically Engineered Dielectrics on Charge Transport in Vacuum-Deposited Bis(tri­isopropyl­silyl­ethynyl)pentacene

The surface functionality of the gate dielectrics is one of the important variables to have a huge impact on the electrical performance of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Here, we describe the impact of energetically engineered dielectrics on charge transport in vacuum-deposited 6,13-bis­(triisopropyl­silylethynyl)­pentacene (TIPS-pentacene) thin films for eventually realizing high-performance OFETs. A variety of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) bearing amino, methyl, phenyl (PTS), or fluoro end groups were introduced onto the SiO2 dielectric surfaces to design energetically engineered surfaces that can be used to explore the impact of surface functionalities at a TIPS-pentacene/gate dielectric interface. The solvent-free vacuum deposition of TIPS-pentacene was used to exclude solution-processing effects resulting from fluid flows and solvent drying processes. The TIPS-pentacene layer on the PTS-SAM yielded the best morphological and crystalline structures, which directly enhanced the electrical properties, exhibiting field-effect mobilities as high as 0.18 cm2/(V s). Furthermore, the hysteresis, turn-on voltage, and threshold voltage were correlated with the surface potentials of various SAM-dielectrics. We believe that systematic investigation of the energetically engineered dielectrics presented here can provide a meaningful step toward optimizing the organic semiconductor/dielectric interface, thereby implementing flexible and high-performance OFETs.