High-performance transparent inorganic–organic hybrid thin-film n-type transistors

High-performance thin-film transistors (TFTs) that can be fabricated at low temperature and are mechanically flexible, optically transparent and compatible with diverse substrate materials are of great current interest. To function at low biases to minimize power consumption, such devices must also contain a high-mobility semiconductor and/or a high-capacitance gate dielectric. Here we report transparent inorganic–organic hybrid n-type TFTs fabricated at room temperature by combining In2O3 thin films grown by ion-assisted deposition, with nanoscale organic dielectrics self-assembled in a solution-phase process. Such TFTs combine the advantages of a high-mobility transparent inorganic semiconductor with an ultrathin high-capacitance/low-leakage organic gate dielectric. The resulting, completely transparent TFTs exhibit excellent operating characteristics near 1.0 V with large field-effect mobilities of >120 cm2 V−1 s−1, drain–source current on/off modulation ratio (Ion/Ioff)∼105, near-zero threshold voltages and sub-threshold gate voltage swings of 90 mV per decade. The results suggest new strategies for achieving ‘invisible’ optoelectronics.