Dynamic characterization of charge transport in organic and polymer transistors

Abstract

In this paper we describe three methods that can be used to measure the transient response of organic and polymer field-effect transistors (FETs) and also how such measurements can be used to determine the drift mobility and velocity. The first method measures the response of a FET to a step voltage applied to the source with the gate grounded and the drain held at close to ground, while the second uses a ramp input to the source. The third technique evaluates the frequency response of the FET, connected as a diode, to a large-signal alternating voltage. We show that important information can be obtained from such measurements which can be quantitatively interpreted with the help of models that we are developing. In general, there is good agreement between the drift mobility measured with these approaches and the field-effect mobility calculated from transistor output and transfer characteristics. The specific results we present in this paper are for pentacene devices; however, other recent work by our group indicates that these results are more general.