Through the investigation of the sample surface and interface of 3, 4, 9, 10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA)/indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films using atomic force microscopy, it has been found that the surface is complanate, the growth is uniform and the defects cover basically the surface of ITO. Furthermore, the number of pinholes is small. The analysis of the sample surface and interface further verifies this result by using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. At the same time, PTCDA is found to have the ability of restraining the diffusion of chemical constituents from ITO to the hole transport layer, which is beneficial to the improvement of the performance and the useful lifetime of the organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).
The electronic states of the surface and interface of 3,4, 9, 10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA)/indium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin film are investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A- tomic force microscopy (AFM) is also applied to investigate the pattern of PTCDA/ITO film. XPS results show that there are two main peaks,which are associated with C atoms in the perylene rings and acid anhydride groups, located at 284.6 and 288.7eV, respectively,in the Cls spectrum of the original surface. It can be deduced from the emergence of a small peak at 290.4eV in the Cls spectrum that some C atoms are oxidized by O atoms from ITO. The binding energies of O atoms in C-O bonds and C--O---C bonds are 531.5 and 533.4eV respectively. At the interface,the peak at the high binding energy in the Cls spectrum disappears,and the peak value shifts about 0.2eV to lower binding energy, There is a significant 1.5eV chemical shift to lower binding energy in the Ols spectrum. These observations indicate that perylene rings inside PTCDA molecules are combined with In vacancies in the ITO at the interface. The AFM results show that PTCDA molecules formed an island-like structure a height of about 14nm. The sizes of the crystal grains are about 100--300nm. The island-like pattern comes from the delocalized π bonds of adjacent molecules in PTCDA and the combination of vacancies in ITO with perylene rings at the PTCDA/ITO interface.
Fabrication of ambipolar organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) is essential for the achievement of an organic complementary logic circuit. Ambipolar transports in OFETs with heterojunction structures are realized.We select pentacene as a P-type material and N,N'-bis(4-trifluoromethylben-zyl)perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic diimide (PTCDI-TFB) as a n-type material in the active layer of the OFETs.The field-effect transistor shows highly air-stable ambipolar characteristics with a field-effect hole mobility of 0.18 cm^2/(V·s) and field-effect electron mobility of 0.031 cm^2/(V·s).Furthermore the mobility only slightly decreases after being exposed to air and remains stable even for exposure to air for more than 60 days.The high electron affinity of PTCDI-TFB and the octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) self-assembly monolayer between the SiO2 gate dielectric and the organic active layer result in the observed air-stable characteristics of OFETs with high mobility.The results demonstrate that using the OTS as a modified gate insulator layer and using high electron affinity semiconductor materials are two effective methods to fabricate OFETs with air-stable characteristics and high mobility.