Low-Cost, High-Gain MoS₂ FETs from Amorphous Low-Mobility Film Precursors

With the aggressive invasion of thin film transistors (TFTs) in the rapidly altering/disposable portable electronics, displays, smartphones, and wearable market, cost reduction has evolved into a challenge as much as electrical properties’ improvement. Therefore, it is not surprising that processes requiring expensive equipment and energy-intensive processes are abandoned in favor of room-temperature (RT) approaches, liquid-phase deposition, and colloids. Despite being cheaper, the latter suffer from controllability, performance, and large contact resistance issues, deteriorating the quality of the final product. To meet the trends while not compromising the performance, we fabricate a MoS2-based ionic liquid-gated TFT with an ON-current of 1.5 × 104 A for holes and a field-effect mobility of 64.3 cm2·V–1·s–1 at RT in a hybrid liquid–solid-state three-dimensional (3D) topology utilizing low-energy expenditure impurity-tolerant processes. The device addresses the weakness of unattainability of P-type conduction in MoS2, thereby extending its pertinency to PN diodes and complementary integration logic. In addition, photoenabled switching and memory functionality are demonstrated and detailed material and electrical properties are investigated. The herein presented advanced architecture is, to the best of our knowledge, the first low-cost, high-gain MoS2 metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) based on amorphous low-mobility film precursors that enables high-performance multifunctional stackable MOSFETs on any kind of processing-sensitive, plastic, and/or flexible substrate.