High hole mobility in physical vapour deposition-grown tellurium-based transistors

Carrier mobility is one of most important figures of merit for materials that can determine to a large extent the corresponding device performances. So far, extensive efforts have been devoted to the mobility improvement of two-dimensional (2D) materials regarded as promising candidates to complement the conventional semiconductors. Graphene has amazing mobility but suffers from zero bandgap. Subsequently, 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides benefit from their sizable bandgap while the mobility is limited. Recently, the 2D elemental materials such as the representative black phosphorus can combine the high mobility with moderate bandgap; however the air-stability is a challenge. Here, we report air-stable tellurium flakes and wires using the facile and scalable physical vapour deposition (PVD) method. The prototype field-effect transistors were fabricated to exhibit high hole mobility up to 1485 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) at room temperature and 3500 cm(2) V-1 s(-1) at low temperature (2 K). This work can attract numerous attentions on this new emerging 2D tellurium and open up a new way for exploring high-performance optoelectronics based on the PVD-grown p-type tellurium.

Automated summary

Carrier mobility is a crucial figure of merit for materials, with graphene having high mobility but zero bandgap, while transition-metal dichalcogenides have a sizable bandgap but limited mobility. Recent developments in 2D tellurium materials show high mobility and moderate bandgap, but air-stability remains a challenge. A new method using physical vapour deposition (PVD) has successfully produced air-stable tellurium flakes and wires with high hole mobility, opening up possibilities for high-performance optoelectronics.