Low-temperature carrier dynamics in high-mobility organic transistors of alkylated dinaphtho-thienothiophene as investigated by electron spin resonance

Charge carriers in high-mobility organic thin-film transistors of alkylated dinaphtho-thienothiophene (C10-DNTT) have been directly observed by field-induced electron spin resonance (FI-ESR) down to 4 K. FI-ESR spectra of π-electron hole carriers of C10-DNTT exhibited clear anisotropy, indicating a highly organized end-on molecular orientation at the device interface. The intra-grain and inter-grain carrier motion were probed by the motional narrowing effect of the ESR spectra. The intra-grain motion was clearly observed even at 4 K, showing intrinsically high mobility of C10-DNTT crystallites. On the other hand, significantly low activation energy of ∼10 meV for inter-grain carrier hopping, compared with pristine DNTT, was observed, which shows that the alkyl substitution drastically enhances the carrier mobility of DNTT system.