Electrochemical Doping in Electrolyte-Gated Polymer Transistors

By comparing the changes in pi-pi* absorption with the transconductance in PEO-LiClO4 electrolyte-gated FETs, we have demonstrated that the high channel currents obtained at low gate voltages result from reversible electrochemical doping of the semiconducting polymer film. At low temperatures, the conductivity of the electrochemically doped poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yl)thieno3,2-bthiophene), PBTTT-C14, is nonlinear with a crossover from dsigma(T)/dT > 0 to dsigma(T)/dT approximately 0 as a function of the source-drain voltage. High current densities, up to 10(6) A/cm2 at 4.2 K, can be sustained in the electrochemically doped PBTTT-C14 films.