  Pentacenequinone (PnQ) impurities have been introduced into a pentacene
source material at number densities from 0.001 to 0.474 to quantify the
relative effects of impurity content and grain boundary structure on transport
in pentacene thin-film transistors. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and
electrical measurements of top-contact pentacene thin-film transistors have
been employed to directly correlate initial structure and final film
structures, with the device mobility as a function of added impurity content.
The results reveal a factor four decrease in mobility without significant
changes in film morphology for source PnQ number fractions below ~0.008. For
these low concentrations, the impurity thus directly influences transport,
either as homogeneously distributed defects or by concentration at the
otherwise-unchanged grain boundaries. For larger impurity concentrations, the
continuing strong decrease in mobility is correlated with decreasing grain
size, indicating an impurity-induced increase in the nucleation of grains
during early stages of film growth.
