Organic tunnel field-effect transistors

Abstract The much sought after intrinsically flexible organic transistors are poised to become a central ingredient in the development of wearable technologies and bioelectronics1-3. A paramount requisite for these applications lies in achieving high signal amplification at low power. However, despite extensive endeavors, the improvement of signal amplification efficiency in organic transistors has been constrained by the Boltzmann thermionic limit in subthreshold swing (SS) so far1,3-5. Here, by developing a molecule-assisted interface decoupling strategy, we break the Boltzmann’s tyranny in organic transistors and realize the first case of organic tunnel field-effect transistors (OTFETs). In the OTFETs, a high-ionization-energy molecular layer is decorated at metal oxide and organic semiconductor heterojunction interface to minimize interfacial gap states and reduce tunneling barrier, thus enabling the occurrence of band-to-band tunneling at a low supply voltage. Therefore, the OTFETs exhibit subthermionic SS of 35.2 ± 7.6 millivolts per decade and record-high signal amplification efficiency of 68.4 ± 14.7 siemens per ampere, which leads to voltage gain of the flexible circuit over 537 at ultralow power consumption of <0.8 nanowatt. This work opens a fire-new device concept for high-performance and low-power organic transistors, paving the way for energy-efficient flexible and wearable electronics.