Improved Electron Transport with Reduced Contact Resistance in N-Doped Polymer Field-Effect Transistors with a Dimeric Dopant

Attaining control on charge injection properties is significant for meaningful applications of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Here, molecular electron-doping is applied with an air-stable dimer dopant for n-type OFETs based on (naphthalene diimide–diketopyrrolopyrrole) polymer hosts. Through investigating the doping effect on contact and transport properties, it is found that the electron transport increases in n-doped OFETs at low doping regime with remaining large on/off ratios. These favorable meliorations are reconciled by the mitigated impacts of contact resistance and interfacial traps, as well as the surface morphology exhibiting features of increased ordering. The occurrence of doping in the presence of dimer dopants is evidenced by the observed shift of Fermi level toward vacuum level coupled with compositional analysis. Without applying vacuum-deposition-based contact doping, charge injection efficiencies are gained without losing OFET characteristics using the solution-based methodology.