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Titania–silica hybrid films derived by a sol–gel process for organic field effect transistors

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for dielectric, electronic, magnetic and ferroelectric applications
  • Published:
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Abstract

Titania–silica hybrid films with a thickness of 300 nm are fabricated by combining a sol–gel method with a spin-coating process from the acid-catalyzed organically modified silane solution of γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, methyltriethoxysilane and tetrapropylorthotitanate. The dielectric constants of the titania–silica hybrid films can be easily controlled by adjusting titanium content. Effects of titanium content and heat treatment temperature on the leakage current and surface roughness of the as-fabricated films are also optimized, thus, the hybrid film with smooth surface (R q < 0.3 nm), high dielectric constant (k = 59.44) and low leakage current density (<1 nA cm−2 at 5 V) is obtained and then used as the dielectric layer for the organic field effect transistors. Results indicate that the electrical properties of the organic field effect transistor fabricated by the titania–silica hybrid film as dielectric layer show an obvious improvement as compared with those of the organic field effect transistor fabricated by the thermally grown SiO2 as dielectric layer, especially, in the improvement of the operating voltage (−2 V), field effect mobility (0.53 cm2 V−1 s−1) and sub-threshold swing (~130 mV/dec). It can be concluded that the titania–silica hybrid film shows a potential for the dielectric layer of the organic field effect transistors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China under Grant 20120201130004, the Science and Technology Developing Project of Shaanxi Province under Grant No. 2015KW-001, partially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Major Research Plan on Nanomanufacturing under Grant No. 91323303, and the 111 Project of China (B14040). The SEM work was done at the International Center for Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, P. R. China, and the AFM work was done at the Micro-optoelectronic Systems Laboratories, Xi’an Technology University, P. R. China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, International Center for Dielectric Research, Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education, School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Jiaxing Hu & Wenxiu Que

  2. Micro-optoelectronic Systems Laboratories, Xi’an Technology University, Xi’an, 710021, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Jiaxing Hu & Zhili Chen

  3. State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Jinyou Shao

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  1. Jiaxing Hu
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Correspondence to Wenxiu Que.

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Hu, J., Que, W., Chen, Z. et al. Titania–silica hybrid films derived by a sol–gel process for organic field effect transistors. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 83, 666–674 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-017-4459-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-017-4459-z

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