Lower activation energy in organic field effect transistors with carbon nanotube contacts

•Fabricated pentacene field effect transistors using carbon nanotube electrodes.•Temperature and gate voltage dependent transport properties were investigated.•Temperature dependent data follows thermally activated hoping behavior.•Compared to Pd, CNT contacted devices show smaller activation energy.•Enhanced device performance is attributed to the improved CNT/pentacene interface.

We study temperature dependent charge transport properties of pentacene field effect transistors (FET) with carbon nanotube (CNT) electrodes. The field effect mobilities at different temperatures and gate voltages follow activated hopping behavior from which we calculate an activation energy of 48 meV for the CNT contacted pentacene FET. This value is lower than that of our control Pd contacted pentacene FET device (83 meV). The lower activation energy of the CNT contacted devices is attributed to improved CNT/pentacene interface.

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