Perfluoropentacene: high-performance p-n junctions and complementary circuits with pentacene.

We report the synthesis and characterization of perfluoropentacene as an n-type semiconductor for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Perfluoropentacene is a planar and crystalline material that adopts a herringbone structure as observed for pentacene. OFETs with perfluoropentacene were constructed using top-contact geometry, and an electron mobility of 0.11 cm2 V-1 s-1 was observed. Bipolar OFETs with perfluoropentacene and pentacene function at both negative and positive gate voltages. The improved p-n junctions are probably due to the similar d-spacings of both acenes. Complementary inverter circuits were fabricated, and the transfer characteristics exhibit a sharp inversion of the output signal with a high-voltage gain.