Pentacene field-effect transistors with sub-10-nm channel lengths

The bottom-contact devices with channel lengths below 10 nm were used to study the field effect in pentacene thin-film transistors. A pair of guarding electrodes as close as 20 nm to the sides of the channel, were used to suppress spreading current in these devices. The responses of these nanometer scale transistors were found to exhibit good gate modulation. In sub-10-nm transistors, mobilities of 0.046 cm ²/Vs and on/off ratios of 97 were obtained. The results show that the device response is influenced by the nature of the metal-semiconductor contact strongly.