Hole mobility modulation of solution-processed nickel oxide thin-film transistor based on high-k dielectric

摘要

Solution-processed p-type oxide semiconductors have recently attracted increasing interests for the applications in low-cost optoelectronic devices and low-power consumption complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits. In this work, p-type nickel oxide (NiO_x) thin films were prepared using low-temperature solution process and integrated as the channel layer in thin-film transistors (TFTs). The electrical properties of NiO_x TFTs, together with the characteristics of NiO_x thin films, were systematically investigated as a function of annealing temperature. By introducing aqueous high-k aluminum oxide (Al_2O_3) gate dielectric, the electrical performance of NiO_x TFT was improved significantly compared with those based on SiO_2 dielectric. Particularly, the hole mobility was found to be 60 times enhancement, quantitatively from 0.07 to 4.4 cm~2/V s, which is mainly beneficial from the high areal capacitance of the Al_2O_3 dielectric and high-quality NiO_x/Al_2O_3 interface. This simple solution-based method for producing p-type oxide TFTs is promising for next-generation oxide-based electronic applications.