Voltage- and light-induced hysteresis effects at the high-k dielectric—poly(3-hexylthiophene) interface

Capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements have been undertaken on metal-insulator-semiconductor capacitors formed from atomic-layer-deposited films of aluminium titanium oxide as the insulator and poly(3-hexylthiophene) as the insulator. Upon cycling from −30to+30V in the dark, the C-V plots show large, temperature-dependent, reversible shifts in the flatband voltage to more negative voltages consistent with reversible, shallow hole trapping at or near the insulator-semiconductor interface. When illuminated with photons of energy exceeding the polymer band gap, even larger shifts to positive voltages are observed accompanied by inversion layer formation. This latter effect has potential applications in optical sensing.