Light emission in the channel region of a polymer thin-film transistor fabricated with gold and aluminum for the source and drain electrodes

Light emission in the channel region of a thin-film transistor using the semiconducting polymer Super Yellow as the emissive material is reported. The transistor structure was fabricated with light emission as the goal. To accomplish this, gold, which is a good hole injector into the organic layer, was patterned for one electrode, while aluminum, which has been shown to function as an electron injecting contact in sandwich and planar organic light emitting diodes, was patterned for the other electrode. The channel length was similar to 1 micrometer and the channel width was similar to 4000 micrometers. The data demonstrate that the magnitude of the gate bias influences the brightness of the emission zone. The location of the emission zone and the possible mechanism of operation will be discussed.