Electrical characteristics of field-effect transistors based on indium arsenide nanowire thinner than 10nm

To suppress short channel effects, lower off-state leakage current and enhance gate coupling efficiency, InAs nanowires (NWs) with diameter smaller than 10 nm could be needed in field-effect transistors (FETs) as the channel length scales down to tens of nanometers to improve the performance and increase the integration. Here, we fabricate and study FETs based on ultrathin wurtzite-structured InAs NWs, with the smallest NW diameter being 7.2 nm. The FETs based on ultrathin NWs exhibit high I-on/I-off ratios of up to 2 x 10(8), small subthreshold swings of down to 120mV/decade, and operate in enhancement-mode. The performance of the devices changes as a function of the diameter of the InAs NWs. The advantages and challenges of the FETs based on ultrathin NWs are discussed. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.