Solution-Processed Light-Emitting Dielectric Films and Their Applications in Transistors

Ionic materials are used as gate dielectric layers for field-effect transistors (FETs) to reduce working voltage. In this paper, we exhibit a newly synthesized ionic iridium complex with interesting multifunction of both insulativity and light emission.¹ Based on this material, a multifunctional device which behaves as a normal transistor at low gate voltage and a controllable light emitting device when the voltage is higher has been successfully fabricated. The device achieves area emission and the brightness can be tuned by three electrodes (gate, source and drain electrodes). Other ionic iridium complexes are also investigated. Results demonstrate that when mixed with some polymer, such as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), these complexes can form high performance light-emitting dielectric films as well. Through analysis of energy levels, the working mechanism of the device is proposed. Our study verifies that ionic light-emitting complexes have potential to be used in low-voltage multifunctional electronic devices.

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61177023, 51173096, and 61474069).

Reference:

1 J. Li, G. Dong*, L. Duan, D. Ma, T. Hu, Y. Zhang, L. Wang and Y. Qiu, RSC Adv. 2014, 4, 51294.