Correlation between bias stress instability and phototransistor operation of pentacene thin-film transistors

The authors study the use of pentacene thin-film transistors as phototransistors. The shift in turn-on voltage (V-on), responsible for the high photosensitivity of these devices, is shown to be strongly dependent on illumination time and applied gate voltage. The time dependence of this process is similar to the shift in V-on during bias stress experiments in the dark, and illumination can simply be accounted for as an acceleration factor for bias stress instability. By comparing the characteristics of devices with different gate dielectrics, trapping of electrons by OH groups at the gate dielectric interface is indicated as a main origin for these shifts. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.