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Solution-deposited sodium beta-alumina gate dielectrics for low-voltage and transparent field-effect transistors

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 898–903 (2009)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 03 February 2010

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Abstract

Sodium beta-alumina (SBA) has high two-dimensional conductivity, owing to mobile sodium ions in lattice planes, between which are insulating AlOx layers. SBA can provide high capacitance perpendicular to the planes, while causing negligible leakage current owing to the lack of electron carriers and limited mobility of sodium ions through the aluminium oxide layers. Here, we describe sol–gel-beta-alumina films as transistor gate dielectrics with solution-deposited zinc-oxide-based semiconductors and indium tin oxide (ITO) gate electrodes. The transistors operate in air with a few volts input. The highest electron mobility, 28.0 cm2 V−1 s−1, was from zinc tin oxide (ZTO), with an on/off ratio of 2×104. ZTO over a lower-temperature, amorphous dielectric, had a mobility of 10 cm2 V−1 s−1. We also used silicon wafer and flexible polyimide–aluminium foil substrates for solution-processed n-type oxide and organic transistors. Using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) poly(styrenesulphonate) conducting polymer electrodes, we prepared an all-solution-processed, low-voltage transparent oxide transistor on an ITO glass substrate.

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Figure 1: Crystal data for SBA.
Figure 2: Capacitance data for SBA films.
Figure 3: ZTO transistor data.
Figure 4: Transfer characteristics (ID versus VG) and output characteristics (ID versus VD) for organic and hybrid transistors.

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Change history

  • 03 February 2010

    In Fig. 2b of this Article originally published, the vertical axis labelling was incorrect. Also, in the Methods section, “0.041 mg” should have been “0.041 g”. These errors have been corrected in the HTML and PDF versions.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge valuable discussions with D. Chakravorty (Calcutta). We thank J. Sun for an AFM characterization of the glassy oxide overlayer and P. Trottman of Howard University for testing of control devices on SiO2. We thank AFOSR (contract number FA9550-06-1-0076), DOE (contract number DE-FG01-07ER-46465 and subcontract with Los Alamos National Laboratory), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory fellowship programme and the NSF PREM programme with Howard University for support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA

    Bhola N. Pal, Bal Mukund Dhar, Kevin C. See & Howard E. Katz

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  2. Bal Mukund Dhar
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Contributions

B.N.P.: inorganic device fabrication and testing, SBA processing and structures, dielectric characterization. B.M.D.: inorganic and pentacene device studies, SBA dielectric studies. K.C.S.: synthesis of NTCDI semiconductor and device demonstration on SBA. H.E.K.: project direction including device design, application of n-channel semiconductors and dielectric mechanistic analysis.

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Correspondence to Howard E. Katz.

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Pal, B., Dhar, B., See, K. et al. Solution-deposited sodium beta-alumina gate dielectrics for low-voltage and transparent field-effect transistors. Nature Mater 8, 898–903 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2560

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