arXiv subjects

Mengwei Si

Publications and source records attributed to Mengwei Si.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

$α$-In$_2$Se$_3$ based Ferroelectric-Semiconductor Metal Junction for Non-Volatile Memories

In this work, we theoretically and experimentally investigate the working principle and non-volatile memory (NVM) functionality of 2D $α$-In$_2$Se$_3$ based ferroelectric-semiconductor-metal-junction (FeSMJ). First, we analyze the semiconducting and ferroelectric properties of $α$-In$_2$Se$_3$ van-der-Waals (vdW) stack via experimental characterization and first-principle simulations. Then, we develop a FeSMJ device simulation framework by self-consistently solving Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) equation, Poisson's equation, and charge-transport equations. Based on the extracted FeS parameters, our simulation results show good agreement with the experimental characteristics of our fabricated $α$-In$_2$Se$_3$ based FeSMJ. Our analysis suggests that the vdW gap between the metal and FeS plays a key role to provide FeS polarization-dependent modulation of Schottky barrier heights. Further, we show that the thickness scaling of FeS leads to a reduction in read/write voltage and an increase in distinguishability. Array-level analysis of FeSMJ NVM suggests a 5.47x increase in sense margin, 18.18x reduction in area and lower read-write power with respect to Fe insulator tunnel junction (FTJ).

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Quantum Hall Effect of Weyl Fermions in Semiconducting n-type Tellurene

Dirac and Weyl nodal materials can host low-energy relativistic quasiparticles. Under strong magnetic fields, the topological properties of Dirac/Weyl materials can directly manifest through quantum Hall states. However, most Dirac/Weyl nodes generically exist in semimetals without exploitable bandgaps due to their accidental band-crossing origin. Here we report the first experimental observation of Weyl fermions in a semiconductor. Tellurene, the 2D form of tellurium, possesses chiral crystal structure which induces unconventional Weyl nodes with a hedgehog-like radial spin texture near the conduction band edge. We synthesize high-quality n-type tellurene by a hydrothermal method with subsequent dielectric doping and detect a topologically non-trivial pi Berry phase in quantum Hall sequences. Our work expands the spectrum of Weyl matter into semiconductors and offers a new platform to design novel quantum devices by marrying the advantages of topological materials to versatile semiconductors.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Raman Response and Transport Properties of One-Dimensional van der Waals Tellurium Nanowires

Tellurium can form nanowires of helical atomic chains. Given their unique one-dimensional van der Waals structure, these nanowires are expected to show remarkably different physical and electronic properties than bulk tellurium. Here we show that few-chain and single-chain van der Waals tellurium nanowires can be isolated using carbon nanotube and boron nitride nanotube encapsulation. With the approach, the number of atomic chains can be controlled by the inner diameter of the nanotube. The Raman response of the structures suggests that the interaction between a single-atomic tellurium chain and a carbon nanotube is weak, and that the inter-chain interaction becomes stronger as the number of chains increases. Compared with bare tellurium nanowires on SiO2, nanowires encapsulated in boron nitride nanotubes exhibit a dramatically enhanced current-carrying capacity, with a current density of 1.5*10^8 A cm-2, which exceeds that of most semiconducting nanowires. We also use our tellurium nanowires encapsulated in boron nitride nanotubes to create field-effect transistors that have a diameter of only 2 nm.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

A Ferroelectric Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

Ferroelectric field-effect transistors employ a ferroelectric material as a gate insulator, the polarization state of which can be detected using the channel conductance of the device. As a result, the devices are of potential to use in non-volatile memory technology, but suffer from short retention times, which limits their wider application. Here we report a ferroelectric semiconductor field-effect transistor in which a two-dimensional ferroelectric semiconductor, indium selenide (α-In2Se3), is used as the channel material in the device. α-In2Se3 was chosen due to its appropriate bandgap, room temperature ferroelectricity, ability to maintain ferroelectricity down to a few atomic layers, and potential for large-area growth. A passivation method based on the atomic-layer deposition of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) was developed to protect and enhance the performance of the transistors. With 15-nm-thick hafnium oxide (HfO2) as a scaled gate dielectric, the resulting devices offer high performance with a large memory window, a high on/off ratio of over 108, a maximum on-current of 862 μA μm-1, and a low supply voltage.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Gate-tunable Strong Spin-orbit Interaction in Two-dimensional Tellurium Probed by Weak-antilocalization

Tellurium (Te) has attracted great research interest due to its unique crystal structure since 1970s. However, the conduction band of Te is rarely studied experimentally because of the intrinsic p-type nature of Te crystal. By atomic layer deposited dielectric doping technique, we are able to access the conduction band transport properties of Te in a controlled fashion. In this paper, we report on a systematic study of weak-antilocalization (WAL) effect in n-type two-dimensional (2D) Te films. We find that the WAL agrees well with Iordanskii, Lyanda-Geller, and Pikus (ILP) theory. The gate and temperature dependent WAL reveals that Dyakonov-Perel (DP) mechanism is dominant for spin relaxation and phase relaxation is governed by electron-electron (e-e) interaction. Large phase coherence length near 600nm at T=1K is obtained, together with gate tunable spin-orbit interaction (SOI). Transition from weak-localization (WL) to weak-antilocalization (WAL) depending on gate bias is also observed. These results demonstrate that newly developed solution-based synthesized Te films provide a new controllable strong SOI 2D semiconductor with high potential for spintronic applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2019

Room Temperature Electrocaloric Effect in Layered Ferroelectric CuInP2S6 for Solid State Refrigeration

A material with reversible temperature change capability under an external electric field, known as the electrocaloric effect (ECE), has long been considered as a promising solid-state cooling solution. However, electrocaloric (EC) performance of EC materials generally is not sufficiently high for real cooling applications. As a result, exploring EC materials with high performance is of great interest and importance. Here, we report on the ECE of ferroelectric materials with van der Waals layered structure (CuInP2S6 or CIPS in this work in particular). Over 60% polarization charge change is observed within a temperature change of only 10 K at Curie temperature. Large adiabatic temperature change (|ΔT|) of 3.3 K, isothermal entropy change (|ΔS|) of 5.8 J kg-1 K-1 at |ΔE|=142.0 kV cm-1 at 315 K (above and near room temperature) are achieved, with a large EC strength (|ΔT|/|ΔE|) of 29.5 mK cm kV-1. The ECE of CIPS is also investigated theoretically by numerical simulation and a further EC performance projection is provided.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

On the Ferroelectric Polarization Switching of Hafnium Zirconium Oxide in Ferroelectric/Dielectric Stack

The ferroelectric polarization switching in ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (Hf0.5Zr0.5O2, HZO) in the HZO/Al2O3 ferroelectric/dielectric stack is investigated systematically by capacitance-voltage and polarization-voltage measurements. The thickness of dielectric layer is found to have a determinant impact on the ferroelectric polarization switching of ferroelectric HZO. A suppression of ferroelectricity is observed with thick dielectric layer. In the gate stacks with thin dielectric layers, a full polarization switching of the ferroelectric layer is found possible by the proposed leakage-current-assist mechanism through the ultrathin dielectric layer. Theoretical simulation results agree well with experimental data. This work clarifies some of the critical parts of the long-standing confusions and debating related to negative capacitance field-effect transistors (NC-FETs) concepts and experiments.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

A tunable ferroelectric based unreleased RF resonator

This paper introduces the first tunable ferroelectric capacitor (FeCAP) based unreleased RF MEMS resonator, integrated seamlessly in Texas Instruments' 130nm Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM) technology. An array of FeCAPs in this complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology's back-end-of-line (BEOL) process were used to define the acoustic resonance cavity as well as the electromechanical transducers. To achieve high quality factor (Q) of the resonator, acoustic waveguiding for vertical confinement within the CMOS stack is studied and optimized. Additional design considerations are discussed to obtain lateral confinement and suppression of spurious modes. An FeCAP resonator is demonstrated with fundamental resonance at 703 MHz and Q of 1012. This gives a frequency quality factor product fQ = 7.11$\times$10$^1$$^1$ which is 1.6$\times$ higher than the most state-of-the-art Pb(Zr,Ti)O$_3$ (PZT) resonators. Due to the ferroelectric characteristics of the FeCAPs, transduction of the resonator can be switched on and off by adjusting the electric polarization. In this case, the resonance can be turned off completely at $\pm$0.3V corresponding to the coercive voltage of the constituent FeCAP transducers. These novel switchable resonators may have promising applications in on-chip timing, ad-hoc radio front ends, and chip-scale sensors.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

A Critical Review of Recent Progress on Negative Capacitance Field-Effect Transistors

The elegant simplicity of the device concept and the urgent need for a new "transistor" at the twilight of Moore's law have inspired many researchers in industry and academia to explore the physics and technology of negative capacitance field effect transistor (NC-FET). Although hundreds of papers have been published, the validity of quasi-static NC and the frequency-reliability limits of NC-FET are still being debated. The concept of NC - if conclusively demonstrated - will have broad impacts on device physics and technology development. Here, the authors provide a critical review of recent progress on NC-FETs research and some starting points for a coherent discussion.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

High Performance Depletion/Enhancement-Mode beta-Ga2O3 on Insulator (GOOI) Field-effect Transistors with Record Drain Currents of 600/450 mA/mm

In this letter, we report on high performance depletion/enhancement (D/E)-mode beta-Ga2O3 on insulator (GOOI) field-effect transistors (FETs) with record high drain currents (ID) of 600/450 mA/mm, which are nearly one order of magnitude higher than any other reported ID values. The threshold voltage (VT) can be modulated by varying the thickness of the beta-Ga2O3 films and the E-mode GOOI FET can be simply achieved by shrinking the beta-Ga2O3 film thickness. Benefiting from the good interface between beta-Ga2O3 and SiO2 and wide bandgap of beta-Ga2O3, a negligible transfer characteristic hysteresis, high ID on/off ratio of 10^10, and low subthreshold swing of 140 mV/dec for a 300 nm thick SiO2 are observed. E-mode GOOI FET with source to drain spacing of 0.9 um demonstrates a breakdown voltage of 185 V and an average electric field (E) of 2 MV/cm, showing the great promise of GOOI FET for future power devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Steep-slope Hysteresis-free Negative Capacitance MoS2 Transistors

The so-called Boltzmann Tyranny defines the fundamental thermionic limit of the subthreshold slope (SS) of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) at 60 mV/dec at room temperature and, therefore, precludes the lowering of the supply voltage and the overall power consumption. Adding a ferroelectric negative capacitor to the gate stack of a MOSFET may offer a promising solution to bypassing this fundamental barrier. Meanwhile, two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, such as atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) due to their low dielectric constant, and ease of integration in a junctionless transistor topology, offer enhanced electrostatic control of the channel. Here, we combine these two advantages and demonstrate for the first time a molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) 2D steep slope transistor with a ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide layer (HZO) in the gate dielectric stack. This device exhibits excellent performance in both on- and off-states, with maximum drain current of 510 μA/μm, sub-thermionic subthreshold slope and is essentially hysteresis-free. Negative differential resistance (NDR) was observed at room temperature in the MoS2 negative capacitance field-effect-transistors (NC-FETs) as the result of negative capacitance due to the negative drain-induced-barrier-lowering (DIBL). High on-current induced self-heating effect was also observed and studied.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

$β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ Nano-membrane Negative Capacitance Field-effect Transistor with Steep Subthreshold Slope for Wide Bandgap Logic Applications

Steep-slope $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ nano-membrane negative capacitance field-effect transistors (NC-FETs) are demonstrated with ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide in gate dielectric stack. Subthreshold slope less than 60 mV/dec at room temperature is obtained for both forward and reverse gate voltage sweeps with a minimum value of 34.3 mV/dec at reverse gate voltage sweep and 53.1 mV/dec at forward gate voltage sweep at $V_{DS}$=0.5 V. Enhancement-mode operation with threshold voltage ~0.4 V is achieved by tuning the thickness of $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ membrane. Low hysteresis of less than 0.1 V is obtained. The steep-slope, low hysteresis and enhancement-mode $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ NC-FETs are promising as nFET candidate for future wide bandgap CMOS logic applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

1D van der Waals Material Tellurium: Raman Spectroscopy under Strain and Magneto-transport

Experimental demonstrations of 1D van der Waals material tellurium have been presented by Raman spectroscopy under strain and magneto-transport. Raman spectroscopy measurements have been performed under strains along different principle axes. Pronounced strain response along c-axis is observed due to the strong intra-chain covalent bonds, while no strain response is obtained along a-axis due to the weak inter-chain van der Waals interaction. Magneto-transport results further verify its anisotropic property, resulting in dramatically distinct magneto-resistance behaviors in terms of three different magnetic field directions. Specifically, phase coherence length extracted from weak antilocalization effect, L$_Φ$ ~ T$^{-0.5}$, claims its 2D transport characteristics when an applied magnetic field is perpendicular to the thin film. In contrast, L$_Φ$ ~ T$^{-0.33}$ is obtained from universal conductance fluctuations once the magnetic field is along c-axis of Te, indicating its nature of 1D transport along the helical atomic chains. Our studies, which are obtained on high quality single crystal tellurium thin film, appear to serve as strong evidences of its 1D van der Waals structure from experimental perspectives. It is the aim of this paper to address this special concept that differs from the previous well-studied 1D nanowires or 2D van der Waals materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2014

The Effect of Dielectric Capping on Few-Layer Phosphorene Transistors: Tuning the Schottky Barrier Heights

Phosphorene is a unique single elemental semiconductor with two-dimensional layered structures. In this letter, we study the transistor behavior on mechanically exfoliated few-layer phosphorene with the top-gate. We achieve a high on-current of 144 mA/mm and hole mobility of 95.6 cm2/Vs. We deposit Al2O3 by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and study the effects of dielectric capping. We observe that the polarity of the transistors alternated from p-type to ambipolar with Al2O3 grown on the top. We attribute this transition to the changes for the effective Schottky barrier heights for both electrons and holes at the metal contact edges, which is originated from fixed charges in the ALD dielectric.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Molecular Doping of Multilayer MoS2 Field-effect Transistors: Reduction in Sheet and Contact Resistances

For the first time, polyethyleneimine (PEI) doping on multilayer MoS2 field-effect transistors are investigated. A 2.6 times reduction in sheet resistance, and 1.2 times reduction in contact resistance have been achieved. The enhanced electrical characteristics are also reflected in a 70% improvement in ON current, and 50% improvement in extrinsic field-effect mobility. The threshold voltage also confirms a negative shift upon the molecular doping. All studies demonstrate the feasibility of PEI molecular doping in MoS2 transistors, and its potential applications in layer-structured semiconducting 2D crystals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Switching Mechanism in Single-Layer Molybdenum Disulfide Transistors: an Insight into Current Flow across Schottky Barriers

In this article, we study the properties of metal contacts to single-layer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) crystals, revealing the nature of switching mechanism in MoS2 transistors. On investigating transistor behavior as contact length changes, we find that the contact resistivity for metal/MoS2 junctions is defined by contact area instead of contact width. The minimum gate dependent transfer length is ~0.63 μm in the on-state for metal (Ti) contacted single-layer MoS2. These results reveal that MoS2 transistors are Schottky barrier transistors, where the on/off states are switched by the tuning the Schottky barriers at contacts. The effective barrier heights for source and drain barriers are primarily controlled by gate and drain biases, respectively. We discuss the drain induced barrier narrowing effect for short channel devices, which may reduce the influence of large contact resistance for MoS2 Schottky barrier transistors at the channel length scaling limit.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2013

Statistical Study of Deep Sub-Micron Dual-Gated Field-Effect Transistors on Monolayer CVD Molybdenum Disulfide Films

Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2) with a direct band gap of 1.8 eV is a promising two-dimensional material with a potential to surpass graphene in next generation nanoelectronic applications. In this letter, we synthesize monolayer MoS2 on Si/SiO2 substrate via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and comprehensively study the device performance based on dual-gated MoS2 field-effect transistors. Over 100 devices are studied to obtain a statistical description of device performance in CVD MoS2. We examine and scale down the channel length of the transistors to 100 nm and achieve record high drain current of 62.5 mA/mm in CVD monolayer MoS2 film ever reported. We further extract the intrinsic contact resistance of low work function metal Ti on monolayer CVD MoS2 with an expectation value of 175 Ω.mm, which can be significantly decreased to 10 Ω.mm by appropriate gating. Finally, field-effect mobilities (μFE) of the carriers at various channel lengths are obtained. By taking the impact of contact resistance into account, an average and maximum intrinsic μFE is estimated to be 13.0 and 21.6 cm2/Vs in monolayer CVD MoS2 films, respectively.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗