Impact of Organic Molecule-Induced Charge Transfer on Operating Voltage Control of Both n‑MoS₂ and p‑MoTe₂ Transistors

Abstract

Since transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors are found as two-dimensional van der Waals materials with a discrete energy bandgap, many TMD based field effect transistors (FETs) are reported as prototype devices. However, overall reports indicate that threshold voltage (Vth) of those FETs are located far away from 0 V whether the channel is p- or n-type. This definitely causes high switching voltage and unintended OFF-state leakage current. Here, a facile way to simultaneously modulate the Vth of both p- and n-channel FETs with TMDs is reported. The deposition of various organic small molecules on the channel results in charge transfer between the organic molecule and TMD channels. Especially, HAT-CN molecule is found to ideally work for both p- and n-channels, shifting their Vth toward 0 V concurrently. As a proof of concept, a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverter with p-MoTe2 and n-MoS2 channels shows superior voltage gain and minimal power consumption after HAT-CN deposition, compared to its initial performance. When the same TMD FETs of the CMOS structure are integrated into an OLED pixel circuit for ambipolar switching, the circuit with HAT-CN film demonstrates complete ON/OFF switching of OLED pixel, which was not switched off without HAT-CN