Influence of disorder on transfer characteristics of organic electrochemical transistors

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are receiving a great deal of attention as transducers of biological signals due to their high transconductance. A ubiquitous property of these devices is the non-monotonic dependence of transconductance on gate voltage. However, this behavior is not descr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2017-07, Vol.111 (2)
Main Authors: Friedlein, Jacob T., Rivnay, Jonathan, Dunlap, David H., McCulloch, Iain, Shaheen, Sean E., McLeod, Robert R., Malliaras, George G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied physics
Contact resistance
Dependence
Design engineering
Electric contacts
Electrical properties
Electron transport
Organic chemistry
Semiconductor devices
Transconductance
Transducers
Transistors
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Summary:Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are receiving a great deal of attention as transducers of biological signals due to their high transconductance. A ubiquitous property of these devices is the non-monotonic dependence of transconductance on gate voltage. However, this behavior is not described by existing models. Using OECTs made of materials with different chemical and electrical properties, we show that this behavior arises from the influence of disorder on the electronic transport properties of the organic semiconductor and occurs even in the absence of contact resistance. These results imply that the non-monotonic transconductance is an intrinsic property of OECTs and cannot be eliminated by device design or contact engineering. Finally, we present a model based on the physics of electronic conduction in disordered materials. This model fits experimental transconductance curves and describes strategies for rational material design to improve OECT performance in sensing applications.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4993776