Reconfigurable MoTe2 Field-Effect Transistors and Its Application in Compact CMOS Circuits

The outstanding physical and electrical properties of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) as semiconductor materials demonstrate a promising platform for future electronic devices. Among all the TMDs, MoTe2, in which the bandgap is close to that of the silicon (Si), is a more favorable candidate than others to be applied in next-generation integrated circuits (ICs). However, the conventional physical or chemical doping method is complicated for fabricating the MoTe2 logic ICs. The transistors with additional polarity gates (PGs) are defined as polarity-controllable transistors (PCTs). The PG can dynamically control the type of charge carriers (n- or p-type) in the source/drain by electrostatic doping without the need of any physical or chemical doping, and thus reconfigure the transistor between n-type and p-type. In our work, the ambipolar conduction property in MoTe2 enables the fabrication of high-quality polarity-controllable MoTe2 transistors (PCMTs) that are promising as building blocks to construct the MoTe2 logic ICs. The on/off ratios of the PCMTs are above 107 for both n-type and p-type. The highest field-effect mobility mu of p- and n-type MoTe2 transistors are 38 and 42, respectively. The inverter (INV) based on the PCMTs has achieved a high gain of 37. Furthermore, the logic-gate cell library, which includes INV, negative-AND (NAND), negative-OR (NOR), exclusive-OR (XOR), and maJority (MAJ) is demonstrated using PCMTs. The above-mentioned desirable properties make PCMTs promising for future applications in 2-D-semiconductor-material-based logic ICs.

Automated summary

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have outstanding physical and electrical properties, making them a promising platform for future electronic devices. MoTe2, with a bandgap close to silicon, shows potential for next-generation integrated circuits. By utilizing the ambipolar conduction property in MoTe2, high-quality polarity-controllable MoTe2 transistors (PCMTs) were successfully fabricated in our work, demonstrating their promise as building blocks for MoTe2 logic ICs.