Room-Temperature Graphene-Nanoribbon Tunneling Field-Effect Transistors
Source abstract
Abstract
Abstract Controlled, tunable, and reversible negative-differential resistance (NDR) is observed in lithographically defined, atomically thin semiconducting graphene nanoribbon (GNR)-gated Esaki diode transistors at room temperature. Sub-10 nm-wide GNRs patterned by electron-beam lithography exhibit semiconducting energy bandgaps of ~0.2 eV extracted by electrical conductance spectroscopy measurements, indicating an atomically thin realization of the electronic properties of conventional 3D narrow-bandgap semiconductors such as InSb. A p–n junction is then formed in the GNR channel by electrostatic doping using graphene side gates, boosted by ions in a solid polymer electrolyte. Transistor characteristics of this gated GNR p–n junction exhibit reproducible and reversible NDR due to interband tunneling of carriers. All essential experimentally observed features are explained by an analytical model and are corroborated by a numerical atomistic simulation. The observation of tunable NDR in GNRs is conclusive proof of the existence of a lithographically defined bandgap and the thinnest possible realization of an Esaki diode. It paves the way for the thinnest scalable manifestation of low-power tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs).
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Graphene research and applications · Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design · Semiconductor materials and devices
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (52)
Show source-provided references
1. Novoselov, K. S. et al. Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films. Science 306, 666–669, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1102896 (2004).10.1126/science.1102896 ↗
2. Geim, A. K. & Novoselov, K. S. The rise of graphene. Nat. Mater. 6, 183–191, https://doi.org/10.1142/9789814287005_0002 (2007).10.1142/9789814287005_0002 ↗
3. Zhang, Y., Tan, Y.–W., Stormer, H. L. & Kim, P. Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase in graphene. Nature 438, 201–204, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04235 (2005).10.1038/nature04235 ↗
4. Jena, D. Tunneling transistors based on graphene and 2-D crystals. Proc. IEEE 101, 1585–1602, https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2013.2253435 (2013).10.1109/JPROC.2013.2253435 ↗
5. Zhao, P., Feenstra, R. M., Gu, G. & Jena, D. SymFET: a proposed symmetric graphene tunneling field-effect transistor. IEEE T. Electron. Dev. 60, 951–957, https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2013.2238238 (2013).10.1109/TED.2013.2238238 ↗
6. Mishchenko, A. et al. Twist-controlled resonant tunneling in graphene/boron nitride/graphene heterostructures. Nat. Nanotechnol. 9, 808–813, https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.187 (2014).10.1038/nnano.2014.187 ↗
7. Nagashima, A., Tejima, N., Gamou, Y., Kawai, T. & Oshirna, C. Electronic structure of monolayer hexagonal boron nitride physisorbed on metal surfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3918–3921, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.3918 (1995).10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.3918 ↗
8. Watanabe, K., Taniguchi, T. & Kanda, H. Direct-bandgap properties and evidence for ultraviolet lasing of hexagonal boron nitride single crystal. Nat. Mater. 3, 404–409, https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1134 (2004).10.1038/nmat1134 ↗
9. Dean, C. R. et al. Boron nitride substrate for high-quality graphene electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 5, 722–726, https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.172 (2010).10.1038/nnano.2010.172 ↗
10. Meric, I. et al. Graphene field-effect transistors based on boron-nitride dielectrics. Proc. IEEE 101, 1609–1619, https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2013.2257634 (2013).10.1109/JPROC.2013.2257634 ↗
11. Jang, S. K., Youn, J., Song, Y. J. & Lee, S. Synthesis and characterization of hexagonal boron nitride as a gate dielectric. Sci. Rep. 6, 30449, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep30449 (2016).10.1038/srep30449 ↗
12. Radisavljevic, B., Radenovic, A., Brivio, J., Giacometti, V. & Kis, A. Single-layer MoS2 transistors. Nat. Nanotechnol. 6, 147–150, https://doi.org/10.1021/nn2024557 (2011).10.1021/nn2024557 ↗
13. Kim, S. et al. High-mobility and low-power thin-film transistors based on multilayer MoS2 crystals. Nat. Commun. 3, 1011, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2018 (2012).10.1038/ncomms2018 ↗
14. Li, X. et al. Controlled vapor phase growth of single crystalline, two-dimensional GaSe crystals with high photoresponse. Sci. Rep. 4, 5497, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep05497 (2014).10.1038/srep05497 ↗
15. Ohta, T., Bostwick, A., Seyller, T., Horn, K. & Rotenberg, E. Controlling the electronic structure of bilayer graphene. Science 313, 951–954, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1130681 (2006).10.1126/science.1130681 ↗
16. Zhang, Y. et al. Direct observation of a widely tunable bandgap in bilayer graphene. Nature 459, 820–823, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08105 (2009).10.1038/nature08105 ↗
17. Rudenko, A. N. & Katsnelson, M. I. Quasiparticle band structure and tight-binding model for single- and bilayer black phosphorus. Phys. Rev. B 89, 201408(R), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.201408 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevB.89.201408 ↗
18. Lu, J. et al. Bandgap engineering of phosphorene by laser oxidation toward functional 2D materials. ACS Nano 9, 10411–10421, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.5b04623 (2015).10.1021/acsnano.5b04623 ↗
19. Charlier, J.–C., Blas, X. & Roche, S. Electronic and transport properties of nanotubes. Rev. Mod. Phys. 79, 677–732, https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.79.677 (2007).10.1103/RevModPhys.79.677 ↗
20. Franklin, A. D. et al. Sub-10 nm carbon nanotube transistor. Nano Lett. 12, 758–762, https://doi.org/10.1021/nl203701g (2012).10.1021/nl203701g ↗
21. Arnold, M. S., Green, A. A., Hulvat, J. F., Stupp, S. I. & Hersam, M. C. Sorting carbon nanotubes by electronic structure using density differentiation. Nature 1, 60–65, https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2006.52 (2006).10.1038/nnano.2006.52 ↗
22. Wang, C. et al. Wafer-scale fabrication of separated carbon nanotube thin-film transistors for display applications. Nano Lett. 9, 4285–4291, https://doi.org/10.1021/nl902522f (2009).10.1021/nl902522f ↗
23. Appenzeller, J., Lin, Y.–M., Knoch, J. & Avouris, Ph Band-to-band tunneling in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 196805, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.196805 (2004).10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.196805 ↗
24. Ionescu, A. M. & Riel, H. Tunnel field-effect transistors as energy efficient electronic switches. Nature 479, 329–337, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10679 (2011).10.1038/nature10679 ↗
25. Ma, N. & Jena, D. Interband tunneling in two-dimensional crystal semiconductors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 132102, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4799498 (2013).10.1063/1.4799498 ↗
26. Jena, D., Fang, T., Zhang, Q. & Xing, H. Zener tunneling in semiconducting nanotube and graphene nanoribbon p-n junctions. Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 112106, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2983744 (2008).10.1063/1.2983744 ↗
27. Nikonov, D. E. & Young, I. A. Benchmarking of beyond-CMOS exploratory devices for logic integrated circuits. IEEE J. Explor. Solid State Computat. Devices Circuits 1, 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1109/JXCDC.2015.2418033 (2015).10.1109/JXCDC.2015.2418033 ↗
28. Zhang, Q., Fang, T., Xing, H., Seabaugh, A. & Jena, D. Graphene nanoribbon tunnel transistors. IEEE Electr. Device Lett. 29, 1344–1346, https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2008.2005650 (2008).10.1109/LED.2008.2005650 ↗
29. Han, M. Y., Özyilmaz, B., Zhang, Y. & Kim, P. Energy band-gap engineering of graphene nanoribbons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 206805, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.206805 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.206805 ↗
30. Li, X. et al. Large-area synthesis of high-quality and uniform graphene films on copper foils. Science 324, 1312, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1171245 (2009).10.1126/science.1171245 ↗
31. Liao, A. D. et al. Thermally limited current carrying ability of graphene nanoribbons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 256801, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.256801 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.256801 ↗
32. Hwang, W. S. et al. Graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors on wafer-scale epitaxial graphene on SiC substrates. APL Mater. 3, 011101, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4905155 (2015).10.1063/1.4905155 ↗
33. Hwang, W. S. et al. Transport properties of graphene nanoribbon transistors on chemical-vapor-deposition grown wafer-scale graphene. Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 203107, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4716983 (2012).10.1063/1.4716983 ↗
34. Nilsson, H. A. et al. Temperature dependent properties of InSb and InAs nanowire field-effect transistors. Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 153505, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3402760 (2010).10.1063/1.3402760 ↗
35. Lee, H. et al. Sub-5 nm all-around gate FinFET for ultimate scaling. 2006 Symposium on VLSI Technology. Digest of Technical Papers. 58–59, https://doi.org/10.1109/VLSIT.2006.1705215 (2006).10.1109/VLSIT.2006.1705215 ↗
36. Williams, J. R., DiCarlo, L. & Marcus, C. M. Quantum Hall effect in a gate-controlled p-n junction of graphene. Science 317, 638, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144657 (2007).10.1126/science.1144657 ↗
37. Farmer, D. B., Lin, Y. –M., Afzali-Ardakani, A. & Avouris, P. Behavior of a chemically doped graphene junction. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 213106, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3142865 (2009).10.1063/1.3142865 ↗
38. Huard, B., Stander, N., Sulpizio, J. A. & Goldhaber-Gordon, D. Evidence of the role of contacts on the observed electron-hole asymmetry in graphene. Phys. Rev. B 78, 121401(R), https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.78.121402 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevB.78.121402 ↗
39. Romero, H. E. et al. N-type behavior of graphene supported on Si/SiO2 substrates. ACS Nano 2, 2037–2044, https://doi.org/10.1021/nn800354m (2008).10.1021/nn800354m ↗
40. Wang, X. et al. N-doping of graphene through electrothermal reactions with ammonia. Science 324, 768–771, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1170335 (2009).10.1126/science.1170335 ↗
41. Ueno, K. et al. Electric-field-induced superconductivity in an insulator. Nat. Mater. 7, 855, https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2298 (2008).10.1038/nmat2298 ↗
42. Welton, T. Room-temperature ionic liquids. Solvents for synthesis and catalysis. Chem. Rev. 99, 2071, https://doi.org/10.1021/cr980032t (1999).10.1021/cr980032t ↗
43. Ye, Y.–S. et al. Ionic liquid polymer electrolytes. J. Mater. Chem. A 1, 2719, https://doi.org/10.1039/C2TA00126H (2013).10.1039/C2TA00126H ↗
44. Efetov, D. K. & Kim, P. Controlling electron-phonon interactions in graphene at ultrahigh carrier densities. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 256805, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.256805 (2010).10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.256805 ↗
45. Luisier, M. & Klimeck, G. Performance analysis of statistical samples of graphene nanoribbon tunneling transistors with line edge roughness. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 223505, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3140505 (2009).10.1063/1.3140505 ↗
46. Chen, L. et al. Oriented graphene nanoribbons embedded in hexagonal boron nitride trenches. Nat. Commun. 8, 14703, https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14703 (2017).10.1038/ncomms14703 ↗
47. Che, L. et al. Edge control of graphene domains grown on hexagonal boron nitride. Nanoscale 9, 11475, https://doi.org/10.1039/C7NR02578E (2017).10.1039/C7NR02578E ↗
48. Hwang, W. S. et al. Fabrication of top-gated epitaxial graphene nanoribbon FETs using hydrogen-silsesquioxane. J. Val. Sci. Technol. B 30, 03D104, https://doi.org/10.1116/1.3693593 (2012).10.1116/1.3693593 ↗
49. Robitaille, C. & Fauteus, D. Phase-diagrams and conductivity characterization of some PEO-Lix electrolytes. J. Elec. Soc. 133, 315, https://doi.org/10.1149/1.2108569 (1986).10.1149/1.2108569 ↗
50. Boykin, T. B. et al. Accurate six-band nearest-neighbor tight-binding model for the π-bands of bulk graphene and graphene nanoribbons. J. Appl. Phys. 109, 104304, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3582136 (2011).10.1063/1.3582136 ↗
51. Luisier, M. & Klimeck, G. Performance analysis of statistical samples of graphene nanoribbon tunneling transistors with line edge roughness. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 223505, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3140505 (2011).10.1063/1.3140505 ↗
52. Fiori, G. & Iannaccone, G. Simulation of graphene nanoribbon field-effect transistors. IEEE Elec. Dev. Lett. 28, 760, https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2007.901680 (2007).10.1109/LED.2007.901680 ↗