Anh Khoa Augustin Lu

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology · Mathematics for Advanced Materials - Open Innovation Laboratory

In this work, the electrostatic control in metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors based on MoS2 is studied, with respect to the number of MoS2 layers in the channel and to the equivalent oxide thickness of the gate dielectric, using first-principles calculations combined with a quantum transport formalism. Our simulations show that a compromise exists between the drive current and the electrostatic control on the channel. When increasing the number of MoS2 layers, a degradation of the device performances in terms of subthreshold swing and OFF currents arises due to the screening of the MoS2 layers constituting the transistor channel.

Tunnel field-effect transistors based on van der Waals heterostructures are emerging device concepts for low-power applications, auguring sub−60 mV/dec subthreshold swing values. In these devices, the channel is built from a stack of several different two-dimensional materials whose nature allows tailoring the band alignments and enables a good electrostatic control of the device. In this work, we propose a theoretical study of the variability of the performances of a MoS2−ZrS2 tunnel field-effect transistor induced by fluctuations of the relative position or the orientation of the layers. Our results indicate that although a steep subthreshold slope (20 mV/dec) is achievable, fluctuations in the relative orientation of the ZrS2 layer with respect to the MoS2 one lead to a significant variability in the tunneling current by about one decade. This arises from changes in the orbital overlap between the layers and from the modulation of the transport direction.

The impact of the scaling of the channel length on the performances of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors, based on two-dimensional (2D) channel materials, is theoretically investigated, using density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function method. It is found that the scaling of the channel length below 10 nm leads to strong device performance degradations. Our simulations reveal that this degradation is essentially due to the tunneling current flowing between the source and the drain in these aggressively scaled devices. It is shown that this electron tunneling process is modulated by the effective mass of the 2D channel material, and sets the limit of the scaling in future transistor designs.

We propose that low-strain Si/O superlattices can be constructed by connecting reconstructed Si{001} surfaces by Si-O-Si bridges. Ab initio calculations show that our models are energetically more favorable than all the models proposed so far. The part of our Si/O superlattice model is experimentally accessible just by oxidizing a Si(001) substrate. To complete our Si/O superlattice model, we propose a three-step method. We also explore the potential of our Si/O superlattice models for new materials used in future Si electronics. We find that the location of the channel where the carriers travel can be controlled between the interfaces and the Si layers by the insertion of O atoms into the Si-Si dimers. By revealing the origins of the interface electron and hole states, we find that similar interface states should be easily achieved for Si slabs and Si substrates. Interestingly, the interface electrons and holes have small effective masses in the direction parallel to the channel and large effective masses in the direction normal to the channel, which makes the Si/O superlattices attractive to be used for channel materials. We also find that the valley splitting of Si is enhanced by the formation of the Si/O/Si interfaces, which is ideal for developing Si-based qubits. Our findings open new perspectives to design and control the electronic properties of Si.

Electronic properties of stanene, the Sn counterpart of graphene are theoretically studied using first-principles simulations. The topological to trivial insulating phase transition induced by an out-of-plane electric field or by quantum confinement effects is predicted. The results highlight the potential to use stanene nanoribbons in gate-voltage controlled dissipationless spin-based devices and are used to set the minimal nanoribbon width for such devices, which is typically approximately 5 nm. [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2015 Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD’s) are promising materials for CMOS application1,2,3 due to their ultra-thin channel with excellent electrostatic control. TMD’s are especially well suited for Tunneling Field-Effect Transistors (TFETs) due to their low dielectric constant and their promise of atomically sharp and self-passivated interfaces4–6. Here we experimentally demonstrate band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) in Van der Waals (VdW) heterostructures formed by MoS2 and MoTe2. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations of the band structure show our MoS2-MoTe2 heterojunctions have a staggered band alignment, which boosts BTBT compared to a homojunction configuration. Low-temperature measurements and electrostatic simulations provide understanding towards the role of schottky contacts and the material thickness on device performance. Negative differential transconductance (NDT) based devices were also demonstrated using a different device architecture. This work provides the prerequisites and challenges required to overcome at the contact region to achieve a steep subthreshold slope and high ON-currents with 2D-based TFETs.

Since the discovery of graphene, a broad range of two-dimensional (2D) materials has crystallized the attention of the scientific communities. Materials such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) family, have shown promising semiconducting and insulating properties that are very appealing for the semiconductor industry. Recently, the possibility of taking advantage of the properties of 2D-based heterostructures has been investigated for low-power nanoelectronic applications. In this work, we aim at evaluating the relation between the nature of the materials used in such heterostructures and the amplitude of the layer-to-layer charge transfer induced by an external electric field, as is typically present in nanoelectronic gated devices. A broad range of combinations of TMDs, graphene and hBN has been investigated using density functional theory. Our results show that the electric field induced charge transfer strongly depends on the nature of the 2D materials used in the van der Waals heterostructures and to a lesser extent on the relative orientation of the materials in the structure. Our findings contribute to the building of the fundamental understanding required to engineer electrostatically the doping of 2D materials and to establish the factors that drive the charge transfer mechanisms in electron tunneling based devices. These are key ingredients for the development of 2D-based nanoelectronic devices.

The idea of stacking multiple monolayers of different two-dimensional materials has become a global pursuit. In this work, a silicene armchair nanoribbon of width W and van der Waals-bonded to different transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) bilayer substrates MoX2 and WX2, where X = S, Se, Te is considered. The orbital resolved electronic structure and ballistic transport properties of these systems are simulated by employing van der Waals-corrected density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green’s functions. We find that the lattice mismatch with the underlying substrate determines the electronic structure, correlated with the silicene buckling distortion and ultimately with the contact resistance of the two-terminal system. The smallest lattice mismatch, obtained with the MoTe2 substrate, results in the silicene ribbon properties coming close to those of a freestanding one. With the TMD bilayer acting as a dielectric layer, the electronic structure is tunable from a direct to an indirect semiconducting layer, and subsequently to a metallic electronic dispersion layer, with a moderate applied perpendicular electric field.

By using first-principles simulations, we investigate the interaction of silicene and germanene with various non-metallic substrates. We first consider weak van der Waals interactions between the 2D layers and dichalcogenide substrates, like MoX2 (X=S, Se, Te). The buckling of the silicene or germanene layer is correlated to the lattice mismatch between the 2D material and the MoX2 template. The electronic properties of silicene or germanene on these different templates then largely depend on the buckling of the 2D material layer: highly buckled silicene or germanene on MoS2 are predicted to be metallic, while low buckled silicene on MoTe2 is predicted to be semi-metallic, with preserved Dirac cones at the K points. We next study the covalent bonding of silicene and germanene on (0001) ZnS and ZnSe surfaces. On these substrates, silicene or germanene are found to be semiconducting. Remarkably, the nature and magnitude of their energy band gap can be controlled by an out-of-plane electric field.