Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 3, Pages 691-696Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0807596106
Keywords
chemistry; field effect transistor; nanofabrication; nanoscience; self-assembly
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Funding
- Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative of the National Science Foundation (NSF) [CHE-0117752, ECCS-0707748]
- New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) [DMR-0213574]
- Peking University, FANEDD [2007B21]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [50873004, 20833001]
- Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Program of the National Science Foundation [DMR-0213574]
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This study reports a general methodology for making stable high-performance photosensitive field effect transistors (FET) from self-assembled columns of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) as point contacts. In particular, the molecules used in this work are liquid crystalline materials of tetra(dodecyloxy) hexabenzocoronenes (HBCs) that are able to self-organize into columnar nanostructures with a diameter similar to that of SWNTs and then form nanoscale columnar transistors. To rule out potential artifacts, 2 different structural approaches were used to construct devices. One approach is to coat thin films of HBCs onto the devices with the SWNT-metal junctions protected by hydrogensilsesquioxane resin (HSQ), and the other is to place a droplet of HBC exactly on the nanogaps of SWNT electrodes. Both types of devices showed typical FET behaviors, indicating that SWNT-molecule-SWNT nano-junctions are responsible for the electrical characteristics of the devices. After thermally annealing the devices, HBC molecules assembled into columnar structures and formed more efficacious transistors with increased current modulation and higher gate efficiency. More interestingly, when the devices were exposed to visible light, photocurrents with an on/off ratio of >3 orders of magnitude were observed. This study demonstrates that stimuli-responsive nanoscale transistors have the potential applications in ultrasensitive devices for environmental sensing and solar energy harvesting.
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