5 research outputs found
Electron Excess Doping and Effective Schottky Barrier Reduction on the MoS<sub>2</sub>/<i>h</i>‑BN Heterostructure
Layered hexagonal boron nitride (<i>h</i>-BN) thin film
is a dielectric that surpasses carrier mobility by reducing charge
scattering with silicon oxide in diverse electronics formed with graphene
and transition metal dichalcogenides. However, the <i>h</i>-BN effect on electron doping concentration and Schottky barrier
is little known. Here, we report that use of <i>h</i>-BN
thin film as a substrate for monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> can induce
∼6.5 × 10<sup>11</sup> cm<sup>–2</sup> electron
doping at room temperature which was determined using theoretical
flat band model and interface trap density. The saturated excess electron
concentration of MoS<sub>2</sub> on <i>h</i>-BN was found
to be ∼5 × 10<sup>13</sup> cm<sup>–2</sup> at high
temperature and was significantly reduced at low temperature. Further,
the inserted <i>h</i>-BN enables us to reduce the Coulombic
charge scattering in MoS<sub>2</sub>/<i>h</i>-BN and lower
the effective Schottky barrier height by a factor of 3, which gives
rise to four times enhanced the field-effect carrier mobility and
an emergence of metal–insulator transition at a much lower
charge density of ∼1.0 × 10<sup>12</sup> cm<sup>–2</sup> (<i>T</i> = 25 K). The reduced effective Schottky barrier
height in MoS<sub>2</sub>/<i>h</i>-BN is attributed to the
decreased effective work function of MoS<sub>2</sub> arisen from <i>h</i>-BN induced <i>n</i>-doping and the reduced effective
metal work function due to dipole moments originated from fixed charges
in SiO<sub>2</sub>
Understanding Coulomb Scattering Mechanism in Monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> Channel in the Presence of <i>h</i>‑BN Buffer Layer
As
the thickness becomes thinner, the importance of Coulomb scattering
in two-dimensional layered materials increases because of the close
proximity between channel and interfacial layer and the reduced screening
effects. The Coulomb scattering in the channel is usually obscured
mainly by the Schottky barrier at the contact in the noise measurements.
Here, we report low-temperature (<i>T</i>) noise measurements
to understand the Coulomb scattering mechanism in the MoS<sub>2</sub> channel in the presence of <i>h</i>-BN buffer layer on
the silicon dioxide (SiO<sub>2</sub>) insulating layer. One essential
measure in the noise analysis is the Coulomb scattering parameter
(α<sub>SC</sub>) which is different for channel materials and
electron excess doping concentrations. This was extracted exclusively
from a 4-probe method by eliminating the Schottky contact effect.
We found that the presence of <i>h</i>-BN on SiO<sub>2</sub> provides the suppression of α<sub>SC</sub> twice, the reduction
of interfacial traps density by 100 times, and the lowered Schottky
barrier noise by 50 times compared to those on SiO<sub>2</sub> at <i>T</i> = 25 K. These improvements enable us to successfully identify
the main noise source in the channel, which is the trapping–detrapping
process at gate dielectrics rather than the charged impurities localized
at the channel, as confirmed by fitting the noise features to the
carrier number and correlated mobility fluctuation model. Further,
the reduction in contact noise at low temperature in our system is
attributed to inhomogeneous distributed Schottky barrier height distribution
in the metal–MoS<sub>2</sub> contact region
Photocurrent Switching of Monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> Using a Metal–Insulator Transition
We
achieve switching on/off the photocurrent of monolayer molybdenum
disulfide (MoS<sub>2</sub>) by controlling the metal–insulator
transition (MIT). N-type semiconducting MoS<sub>2</sub> under a large
negative gate bias generates a photocurrent attributed to the increase
of excess carriers in the conduction band by optical excitation. However,
under a large positive gate bias, a phase shift from semiconducting
to metallic MoS<sub>2</sub> is caused, and the photocurrent by excess
carriers in the conduction band induced by the laser disappears due
to enhanced electron–electron scattering. Thus, no photocurrent
is detected in metallic MoS<sub>2</sub>. Our results indicate that
the photocurrent of MoS<sub>2</sub> can be switched on/off by appropriately
controlling the MIT transition by means of gate bias
Junction-Structure-Dependent Schottky Barrier Inhomogeneity and Device Ideality of Monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> Field-Effect Transistors
Although
monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit superior
optical and electrical characteristics, their use in digital switching
devices is limited by incomplete understanding of the metal contact.
Comparative studies of Au top and edge contacts with monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> reveal a temperature-dependent ideality factor and Schottky
barrier height (SBH). The latter originates from inhomogeneities in
MoS<sub>2</sub> caused by defects, charge puddles, and grain boundaries,
which cause local variation in the work function at Au–MoS<sub>2</sub> junctions and thus different activation temperatures for
thermionic emission. However, the effect of inhomogeneities due to
impurities on the SBH varies with the junction structure. The weak
Au–MoS<sub>2</sub> interaction in the top contact, which yields
a higher SBH and ideality factor, is more affected by inhomogeneities
than the strong interaction in the edge contact. Observed differences
in the SBH and ideality factor in different junction structures clarify
how the SBH and inhomogeneities can be controlled in devices containing
TMD materials
Suppression of Interfacial Current Fluctuation in MoTe<sub>2</sub> Transistors with Different Dielectrics
For transition metal
dichalcogenides, the fluctuation of the channel current due to charged
impurities is attributed to a large surface area and a thickness of
a few nanometers. To investigate current variance at the interface
of transistors, we obtain the low-frequency (LF) noise features of
MoTe<sub>2</sub> multilayer field-effect transistors with different
dielectric environments. The LF noise properties are analyzed using
the combined carrier mobility and carrier number fluctuation model
which is additionally parametrized with an interfacial Coulomb-scattering
parameter (α) that varies as a function of the accumulated carrier
density (<i>N</i><sub>acc</sub>) and the location of the
active channel layer of MoTe<sub>2</sub>. Our model shows good agreement
with the current power spectral density (PSD) of MoTe<sub>2</sub> devices
from a low to high current range and indicates that the parameter
α exhibits a stronger dependence on <i>N</i><sub>acc</sub> with an exponent −γ of −1.18 to approximately
−1.64 for MoTe<sub>2</sub> devices, compared with −0.5
for Si devices. The raised Coulomb scattering of the carriers, particularly
for a low-current regime, is considered to be caused by the unique
traits of layered semiconductors such as interlayer coupling and the
charge distribution strongly affected by the device structure under
a gate bias, which completely change the charge screening effect in
MoTe<sub>2</sub> multilayer. Comprehensive static and LF noise analyses
of MoTe<sub>2</sub> devices with our combined model reveal that a
chemical-vapor deposited <i>h</i>-BN monolayer underneath
MoTe<sub>2</sub> channel and the Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> passivation
layer have a dissimilar contribution to the reduction of current fluctuation.
The three-fold enhanced carrier mobility due to the <i>h</i>-BN is from the weakened carrier scattering at the gate dielectric
interface and the additional 30% increase in carrier mobility by Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> passivation is due to the reduced interface
traps