Organic Single Crystal Transistors Gated by Electric Double Layers in Ionic Liquid

Abstract

Gating organic transistors with electric double layers (EDL) of electrolytes is advantageous in injecting high-density carriers with the application of minimum gate voltage. The drawback of such devices, however, has been that commonly used polymer electrolytes suffer relatively slow ionic diffusion before forming the EDLs. In this report, we disclose a new class of EDL devices incorporating low-viscosity room temperature ionic liquid as the electrolyte layer, so that the rapid ionic diffusion allows MHz operation for the transistor performance. We fabricate a well structure using an elastomeric rubber stamp of poly-dimethylsiloxane to hold the ionic liquid 1-ethyl 3-methyl-imidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, known for high ionic conductivity. The transistor performs without hysteresis with the carrier mobility of 5 cm²V⁻¹s⁻¹, realizing the highest sheet transconductance ever achieved.