Direct observation of contact and channel resistance in pentacene four-terminal thin-film transistor patterned by laser ablation method

摘要

We established a dry-etching patterning process for the channel formation of pentacene thin-film transistor, and fabricated a four-terminal device equipped with a gate electrode. The four-terminal device enabled us to divide two-terminal source-drain resistance into two components of contact resistance and pentacene channel resistance. We obtained direct evidence of a gate-voltage-dependent contact resistance change: the gate-induced charge significantly reduced the contact resistance and increased source-drain current. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the device clearly indicated that the contact resistance was much higher than the channel resistance and was dominated in the two-terminal total resistance of the device below 120 K. An observed activation energy of 80 meV for contact resistance was higher than that of 42 meV for pentacene channel resistance.