Programmable devices based on reversible solid-state doping of two-dimensional semiconductors with superionic silver iodide

The superionic phase transition in silver iodide can be used to tailor the carrier type in two-dimensional tungsten diselenide and create programmable transistors, diodes and logic gates, the functions of which can be erased by external triggers such as ultraviolet irradiation. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are attractive for electronic devices with atomically thin channels. However, controlling the electronic properties of the 2D materials by incorporating impurity dopants is inherently difficult due to the limited physical space in the atomically thin lattices. Here we show that a solid-state ionic doping approach can be used to tailor the carrier type in 2D semiconductors and create programmable devices. Our strategy exploits a superionic phase transition in silver iodide to induce switchable ionic doping. We create few-layer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) devices that can be reversibly transformed into transistors with reconfigurable carrier types and into diodes with switchable polarities by controllably poling the van der Waals integrated silver iodide above the superionic phase transition temperature. We also construct complementary logic gates by integrating and programming identical transistors, and show that the programmed functions can be erased by an external trigger (temperature or ultraviolet irradiation) to create the temporary and delible electronics that are desirable for electronic security.