Tunneling field-effect transistors (FETs) have been intensely explored recently due to its potential to address power concerns in nanoelectronics. The recently discovered graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is ideal for tunneling FETs due to its symmetric bandstructure, light effective mass, and monolayer-thin body. In this work, we examine the device physics of p-i-n GNR tunneling FETs using atomistic quantum transport simulations. The important role of the edge bond relaxation in the device characteristics is identified. The device, however, has ambipolar I-V characteristics, which are not preferred for digital electronics applications. We suggest that using either an asymmetric source-drain doping or a properly designed gate underlap can effectively suppress the ambipolar I-V. A subthreshold slope of 14mV/dec and a significantly improved on-off ratio can be obtained by the p-i-n GNR tunneling FETs.
Recently developed processes have enabled bottom-up chemical synthesis of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with precise atomic structure. These GNRs are ideal candidates for electronic devices because of their uniformity, extremely narrow width below 1 nm, atomically perfect edge structure, and desirable electronic properties. Here, we demonstrate nanoscale chemically synthesized GNR field-effect transistors, made possible by development of a new layer transfer process. We observe strong environmental sensitivity and unique transport behavior characteristic of sub-1nm width GNRs.
Using first-principle electronic structure calculations, we show a metal- semiconductor transition of a metallic graphene nanoribbon with zigzag edges induced by substitutional doping of Nitrogen or Boron atoms at the edges. A field effect transistor consisting of a metal-semiconductor-metal junction can then be constructed by selective doping of the ribbon edges. The current-voltage characteristics of such a prototype device is determined by the first-principle quantum transport calculations.
Graphene nanoribbon (GNR) field-effect transistors (FETs) with widths down to 12 nm have been fabricated by electron beam lithography using a wafer-scale chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to form the graphene. The GNR FETs show drain-current modulation of approximately 10 at 300 K, increasing to nearly 106 at 4 K. The strong temperature dependence of the minimum current indicates the opening of a bandgap for CVD-grown GNR-FETs. The extracted bandgap is estimated to be around 0.1 eV by differential conductance methods. This work highlights the development of CVD-grown large-area graphene …
A computationally efficient mode space simulation method for atomistic simulation of a graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistor in the ballistic limits is developed. The proposed simulation scheme, which solves the nonequilibrium Green's function coupled with a three dimensional Poisson equation, is based on the atomistic Hamiltonian in a decoupled mode space. The mode space approach, which only treats a few modes (subbands), significantly reduces the simulation time. Additionally, the edge bond relaxation and the third nearest neighbor effects are also included in the quantum transport sol…
A theory is developed for interband tunneling in semiconducting carbon nanotube and graphene nanoribbon p-n junction diodes. Characteristic length and energy scales that dictate the tunneling probabilities and currents are evaluated. By comparing the Zener tunneling processes in these structures to traditional group IV and III-V semiconductors, it is proved that for identical bandgaps, carbon based 1D structures have higher tunneling probabilities. The high tunneling current magnitudes for 1D carbon structures suggest the distinct feasibility of high-performance tunneling-based field-effect tr…
Silicene (a monolayer of silicon atoms) is a quantum spin-Hall insulator, which undergoes a topological phase transition into other insulators by applying external field such as electric field, photo-irradiation and antiferromagnetic order. We investigate the electronic and transport properties of silicene nanoribbons based on the Landauer formalism. We propose to determine topological phase transitions by measuring the density of states and conductance. The conductance is quantized and changes its value when the system transforms into different phases. We show that a silicene nanoribbon near …
A spin field effect transistor (FET) is proposed by utilizing a graphene nanoribbon as the channel. Similar to the conventional spin FETs, the device involves ferromagnetic metals as a source and drain; they, in turn, are connected to the graphene channel. Due to the negligible spin-orbital coupling in the carbon based materials, the bias can accomplishes spin manipulation by means of electrical control of electron exchange interaction with a ferromagnetic dielectric attached to the nanoribbon between source and drain. The numerical estimations show the feasibility of graphene-based spin FET i…
We study the channel width scaling of back-gated MoS2 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) from 2 μm down to 60 nm. We reveal that the channel conductance scales linearly with channel width, indicating no evident edge damage for MoS2 nanoribbons with widths down to 60 nm as defined by plasma dry etching. However, these transistors show a strong positive threshold voltage (VT) shift with narrow channel widths of less than 200 nm. Our results also show that transistors with thinner channel thicknesses have larger VT shifts associated with width scaling. Devices fabricated…
Results of quantum mechanical simulations of the influence of edge disorder on transport in graphene nanoribbon metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are reported. The addition of edge disorder significantly reduces ON-state currents and increases OFF-state currents, and introduces wide variability across devices. These effects decrease as ribbon widths increase and as edges become smoother. However the bandgap decreases with increasing width, thereby increasing the band-to-band tunneling mediated subthreshold leakage current even with perfect nanoribbons. These results …
We have fabricated suspended few layer (1-3 layers) graphene nanoribbon field effect transistors from unzipped multiwall carbon nanotubes. Electrical transport measurements show that current-annealing effectively removes the impurities on the suspended graphene nanoribbons, uncovering the intrinsic ambipolar transfer characteristic of graphene. Further increasing the annealing current creates a narrow constriction in the ribbon, leading to the formation of a large band-gap and subsequent high on/off ratio (which can exceed 104). Such fabricated devices are thermally and mechanically stable: re…
We studied the Klein paradox in zigzag (ZNR) and anti-zigzag (AZNR) graphene nanoribbons. Due to the fact that ZNR (the number of lattice sites across the nanoribbon (N is even) and AZNR (N is odd) configurations are indistinguishable when treated by the Dirac equation, we supplemented the model with a pseudo-parity operator whose eigenvalues correctly depend on the sublattice wavefunctions for the number of carbon atoms across the ribbon, in agreement with the tight-binding model. We have shown that the Klein tunneling in zigzag nanoribbons is related to conservation of the pseudo-parity rath…
Bottom-up assembled nanomaterials and nanostructures allow for the studies of rich and unprecedented quantum-related and mesoscopic transport phenomena. However, it can be difficult to quantify the correlations between the geometrical or structural parameters obtained from advanced microscopy and measured electrical characteristics when they are made into macroscopic devices. Here, we propose a strategy to connect the nanomaterial morphologies and the device performance through a Monte Carlo device model and apply it to understand the scaling trends of bottom-up synthesized armchair graphene n…
Here, we isolate thin TiS3 ribbons, a layered direct band gap semiconductor (1.1 eV, well suited for detection all across the visible spectrum), thus far almost unexplored. We fabricate field effect transistors and study their electrical characteristics and optoelectronic properties. The measured FET characteristics show mobilities up to 2.6 cm^2/Vs and ON/OFF ratios up to 10^4. Under illumination, the TiS3 NR-FETs present an ultrahigh photoresponse of 2910 A/W and fast rise/fall times of ~4 ms. In addition, we measure cutoff frequencies (f3dB) up to 1000 Hz. The strong combination of ultrahig…
We investigate theoretically resonant tunneling through double-bended graphene nanoribbon structures, i.e., armchair-edged graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs) in between two semi-infinite zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) leads. Our numerical results demonstrate that the resonant tunneling can be tuned dramatically by the Fermi energy and the length and/or widths of the AGNR for both the metallic and semiconductor-like AGNRs. The structure can also be use to control the valley polarization of the tunneling currents and could be useful for potential application in valleytronics devices.
We theoretically design a graphene-based all-organic ferromagnetic semiconductor by terminating zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) with organic magnets. A large spin-split gap with 100% spin polarized density of states near the Fermi energy is obtained, which is of potential application in spin transistors. The interplays among electron, spin and lattice degrees of freedom are studied using the first-principles calculations combined with fundamental model analysis. All of the calculations consistently demonstrate that although no d electrons existing, the antiferromagnetic π-πexchange togethe…
Bottom-up synthesized GNRs and GNR heterostructures have promising electronic properties for high performance field effect transistors (FETs) and ultra-low power devices such as tunnelling FETs. However, the short length and wide band gap of these GNRs have prevented the fabrication of devices with the desired performance and switching behaviour. Here, by fabricating short channel (Lch ~20 nm) devices with a thin, high-k gate dielectric and a 9-atom wide (0.95 nm) armchair GNR as the channel material, we demonstrate FETs with high on-current (Ion >1 uA at Vd = -1 V) and high Ion/Ioff ~10^5 at …
The impact of electrostatic doping level on the dissipative transport of Armchair GNR-TFET is studied using the Quantum Perturbation Theory (QPT) with the Extended Lowest Order Expansion (XLOE) implementation method. Results show that the doping level of the source and drain sides of the GNR-TFET has a significant impact on the phonon contribution to the carrier transport process. Unlike in other similar studies, where phonons are believed to have a constant detrimental influence on the ION/IOFF ratio and Subthreshold Swing (SS) of the TFET devices due to the phonon absorption-assisted tunneli…
Graphene nanoribbons have attracted attention for their novel electronic and spin transport properties1-6, and because nanoribbons less than 10 nm wide have a band gap that can be used to make field effect transistors. However, producing nanoribbons of very high quality, or in high volumes, remains a challenge. Here, we show that pristine few-layer nanoribbons can be produced by unzipping mildly gas-phase oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotube using mechanical sonication in an organic solvent. The nanoribbons exhibit very high quality, with smooth edges (as seen by high-resolution transmission e…
Phosphorene, a honeycomb structure of black phosphorus, was isolated recently. We investigate electric properties of phosphorene nanoribbons based on the tight-binding model. A prominent feature is the presence of quasi-flat edge bands entirely detached from the bulk band. We explore the mechanism of the emergence of the quasi-flat bands analytically and numerically from the flat bands well known in graphene by a continuous deformation of a honeycomb lattice. The quasi-flat bands can be controlled by applying in-plane electric field perpendicular to the ribbon direction. The conductance is swi…
Layer-by-layer growth of highly aligned MoS$_2$ nanoribbon arrays
Kyushu University（九州大学）；The University of Osaka（大阪大学）；University of Tsukuba（筑波大学）；Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)（浦项科技大学）；Kumamoto University（熊本大学）；National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)（国立产业技术综合研究所）
Graphene/silicon heterostructures have attracted tremendous interest as a new platform for diverse electronic and photonic devices such as barristors, solar cells, optical modulators, and chemical sensors. The studies to date largely focus on junctions between graphene and lightly-doped silicon, where a Schottky barrier is believed to dominate the carrier transport process. Here we report a systematic investigation of carrier transport across the heterojunctions formed between graphene and highly-doped silicon. By varying the silicon doping level and the measurement temperature, we show that t…
Nearly free electron (NFE) state is an important kind of unoccupied state in low dimensional systems. Although it is intensively studied, a clear picture on its physical origin and its response behavior to external perturbations is still not available. Our systematic first-principles study based on graphene nanoribbon superlattices suggests that there are actually two kinds of NFE states, which can be understood by a simple Kronig-Penney potential model. An atom-scattering-free NFE transport channel can be obtained via electron doping, which may be used as a conceptually new field effect trans…
High frequency operation of tunneling real-space transfer transistor (TRSTT) in the negative differential resistance (NDR) regime is assessed by calculating the device common source unity current gain frequency (fT) range with a small signal equivalent circuit model including tunneling. Our circuit model is based on an In0.2Ga0.8As and delta-doped GaAs dual channel structure with various gate lengths. The calculated TRSTT fT agrees very well with experimental data, limiting factor being the resistance of the delta-doped GaAs layer. By optimizing the gate dimensions and channel materials, we fi…
We report a bipolar field effect tunneling transistor that exploits to advantage the low density of states in graphene and its one atomic layer thickness. Our proof-of-concept devices are graphene heterostructures with atomically thin boron nitride acting as a tunnel barrier. They exhibit room temperature switching ratios ~50, a value that can be enhanced further by optimizing the device structure. These devices have potential for high frequency operation and large scale integration.
By using first-principles calculations, we predict that an in-plane homogenous electrical field can induce half-metallicity in hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene and germanene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs and ZGeNRs). A dual-gated finite ZSiNR device reveals a nearly perfect spin-filter efficiency of up to 99% while a quadruple-gated finite ZSiNR device serves as an effective spin field effect transistor (FET) with an on/off current ratio of over 100 from ab initio quantum transport simulation. This discovery opens up novel prospect of silicene and germanene in spintronics.
The past decade has seen rapid growth in the research area of graphene and its application to novel electronics. With Moore's law beginning to plateau, the need for post-silicon technology in industry is becoming more apparent. Moreover, existing technology is insufficient for implementing terahertz detectors and receivers, which are required for a number of applications including medical imaging and security scanning. Graphene is considered to be a key potential candidate for replacing silicon in existing CMOS technology as well as realizing field effect transistors for terahertz detection, d…
One of severe limits of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) in future applications is that zigzag GNRs (ZGNRs) are gapless, so cannot be used in field effect transistors (FETs). In this paper, using tight-binding approach and first principles method, we derived and proved a general edge (boundary) condition for the opening of a significant bandgap in ZGNRs with defective edge structures. The proposed semiconducting GNRs have some interesting properties including the one that they can be embedded and integrated in a large piece of graphene without the need of completely cutting them out. We also demons…
Usually, graphene is used in its horizontal directions to design novel concept devices. Here, we report a single electron tunneling diode based on quantum tunneling through a vertical graphene two-barrier junction. The junction is formed by positioning a scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) tip above a graphene nanoribbon that was deposited on a graphite surface. Because of the asymmetry of the two-barrier junction, the electrons can unidirectional transfer from the tip to the graphene nanoribbon but not from the graphene to the tip. This result opens intriguing opportunities for designing new…
We study the nonequilibrium transport for the asymmetric and negative differential magnon tunneling driven by temperature bias. We demonstrate that the many-body magnon interaction that makes the magnonic spectrum temperature-dependent is the crucial factor for the emergence of rectification and negative differential spin Seebeck effects in magnon tunneling junctions. When magnonic junctions have temperature-dependent density of states, reversing the temperature bias is able to give asymmetric spin currents and increasing temperature bias could give an anomalously decreasing magnonic spin curr…
It is promising to apply quantum-mechanically confined graphene systems in field-effect transistors. High stability, superior performance, and large-scale integration are the main challenges facing the practical application of graphene transistors. Our understandings of the adatom-graphene interaction combined with recent progress in the nanofabrication technology indicate that very stable and high-quality graphene nanostripes could be integrated in substrate-supported functionalized (hydrogenated or fluorinated) graphene using electron-beam lithography. We also propose that parallelizing a co…
In 2D-semiconductor-based field-effect transistors and optoelectronic devices, metal-semiconductor junctions are one of the crucial factors determining device performance. The Fermi-level (FL) pinning effect, which commonly caused by interfacial gap states, severely limits the tunability of junction characteristics, including barrier height and contact resistance. A tunneling contact scheme has been suggested to address the FL pinning issue in metal-2D-semiconductor junctions, whereas the experimental realization is still elusive. Here, we show that an oxidized-monolayer-enabled tunneling barr…
The last decade has seen a flurry of studies related to graphene nanoribbons owing to their potential applications in the quantum realm. However, little experimental work has been reported towards nanoribbons of other 2D materials due to the absence of synthesis routes. Here, we propose a universal approach to synthesize high-quality networks of nanoribbons from arbitrary 2D materials while maintaining high crystallinity, sufficient yield, narrow size distribution, and straight-forward device integrability. The wide applicability of this technique is demonstrated by fabricating MoS2, WS2, WSe2…
The single particle tunneling in a vertical stack consisting of monolayers of two-dimensional semiconductors is studied theoretically and its application to a novel Two-dimensional Heterojunction Interlayer Tunneling Field Effect Transistor (Thin-TFET) is proposed and described. The tunneling current is calculated by using a formalism based on the Bardeen's transfer Hamiltonian, and including a semi-classical treatment of scattering and energy broadening effects. The misalignment between the two 2D materials is also studied and found to influence the magnitude of the tunneling current, but hav…
This work reports the design and analysis of an n-type tunneling field effect transistor based on InN. The tunneling current is evaluated from the fundamental principles of quantum mechanical tunneling and semiclassical carrier transport. We investigate the RF performance of the device. High transconductance of 2 mS/um and current gain cut-off frequency of around 460 GHz makes the device suitable for THz applications. A significant reduction in gate to drain capacitance is observed under relatively higher drain bias. In this regard, the avalanche breakdown phenomenon in highly doped InN juncti…
Spin-dependent electronic transport properties of Fe-terminated zig-zag graphene nanoribbons (zGNR) have been studied using first-principles transport simulations. The spin configuration of proposed zGNR junction can be controlled with external magnetic field, and the tunneling junction show MR>1000 at small bias and is a perfect spin-filter by applying uniform external magnetic filed at small bias.
A vertical spin metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (spin MOSFET) is a promising low-power device for the post scaling era. Here, using a ferromagnetic-semiconductor GaMnAs-based vertical spin MOSFET with a GaAs channel layer, we demonstrate a large drain-source current IDS modulation by a gate-source voltage VGS with a modulation ratio up to 130%, which is the largest value that has ever been reported for vertical spin field-effect transistors thus far. We find that the electric field effect on indirect tunneling via defect states in the GaAs channel layer is responsible for the…
Realization of post-CMOS graphene electronics requires production of semiconducting graphene, which has been a labor-intensive process. We present tailoring of silicon carbide crystals via conventional photolithography and microelectronics processing to enable templated graphene growth on 4H-SiC{1-10n} (n = 8) crystal facets rather than the customary {0001} planes. This allows self-organized growth of graphene nanoribbons with dimensions defined by those of the facet. Preferential growth is confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) measurement…
Control over the morphology of TiS3 is demonstrated by synthesizing 1D nanoribbons and 2D nanosheets. The nanosheets can be exfoliated down to a single layer. Through extensive characterization of the two morphologies, differences in the electronic properties are found and attributed to a higher density of sulphur vacancies in nanosheets which, according to density functional theory calculations, leads to an n-type doping.
Interband quantum tunneling of electrons in semiconductors is of intense recent interest as the underlying transport mechanism in tunneling field-effect transistors. Such transistors can potentially perform electronic switching with lower energy than their conventional counterparts. The recent emergence of 2-dimensional semiconducting crystals provides a new material platform for realizing such devices. In this work, we derive an analytical expression for understanding tunneling current flow in 2D crystal semiconductors. We apply the results to a range of 2D crystal semiconductors, and compare…
The fabrication of atomically precise structures with designer electronic properties is one of the emerging topics in condensed matter physics. The required level of structural control can either be reached through atomic manipulation using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or by bottom-up chemical synthesis. In this review, we focus on recent progress in constructing novel, atomically precise artificial materials: artificial lattices built through atom manipulation and graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) realized by on-surface synthesis. We summarize the required theoretical background…
Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) have attracted considerable interest as their atomically tunable structure makes them promising candidates for future electronic devices. However, obtaining detailed information about the length of GNRs has been challenging and typically relies on low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Such methods are ill-suited for practical device application and characterization. In contrast, Raman spectroscopy is a sensitive method for the characterization of GNRs, in particular for investigating their width and structure. Here, we report on a length-dependent, Raman ac…
Stacking two-dimensional layered materials such as graphene and transitional metal dichalcogenides with nonzero interlayer twist angles has recently become attractive because of the emergence of novel physical properties. Stacking of one-dimensional nanomaterials offers the lateral stacking offset as an additional parameter for modulating the resulting material properties. Here, we report that the edge states of twisted bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons (TBZGNRs) can be tuned with both the twist angle and the stacking offset. Strong edge state variations in the stacking region are first reve…
Structural and electronic properties of silicene adsorbed by five kinds of transition metal atoms (Cu, Ag, Au, Pt, and Ir) are systematically studied by using first-principles calculations. We find that such adsorption can induce a band gap at the Dirac point of doped silicene. Doped silicene can reach a band gap up to 0.23 eV while keeping a relatively small effective mass of around 0.1 me, thus having high carrier mobility estimated to be 50000 cm2/Vs. P-type doping and neutral state is realized in silicene by Ir and Pt adsorption, respectively, while n-type doping is done by Cu, Ag, and Au …
Electrically driven plasmon-polaritonic bistability in Dirac electron tunneling transistors
Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）；ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）；National Institute for Materials Science（国立材料研究所）；Air Force Research Laboratory（空军研究实验室）；ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（巴塞罗那光子科学研究所，巴塞罗那科学技术研究院）；ICREA-Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats（加泰罗尼亚高级研究学院）
