Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Evaporated tellurium thin films for p-type field-effect transistors and circuits

Nature Nanotechnology volume 15, pages 53–58 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

There is an emerging need for semiconductors that can be processed at near ambient temperature with high mobility and device performance. Although multiple n-type options have been identified, the development of their p-type counterparts remains limited. Here, we report the realization of tellurium thin films through thermal evaporation at cryogenic temperatures for fabrication of high-performance wafer-scale p-type field-effect transistors. We achieve an effective hole mobility of ~35 cm2 V−1 s−1, on/off current ratio of ~104 and subthreshold swing of 108 mV dec−1 on an 8-nm-thick film. High-performance tellurium p-type field-effect transistors are fabricated on a wide range of substrates including glass and plastic, further demonstrating the broad applicability of this material. Significantly, three-dimensional circuits are demonstrated by integrating multi-layered transistors on a single chip using sequential lithography, deposition and lift-off processes. Finally, various functional logic gates and circuits are demonstrated.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Characterization of Te thin films evaporated with a substrate temperature of −80 °C.
Fig. 2: FETs based on Te evaporated with a substrate temperature of −80 °C.
Fig. 3: Flexible and transparent FETs based on Te evaporated with a substrate temperature of −80 oC.
Fig. 4: Integrated circuits based on Te FETs.
Fig. 5: Multi-layered Te FETs and 3D inverters.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  1. Nomura, K. et al. Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors. Nature 432, 488–492 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Wang, Z., Nayak, P. K., Caraveo-Frescas, J. A. & Alshareef, H. N. Recent developments in p-type oxide semiconductor materials and devices. Adv. Mater. 28, 3831–3892 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Kim, M.-G., Kanatzidis, M. G., Facchetti, A. & Marks, T. J. Low-temperature fabrication of high-performance metal oxide thin-film electronics via combustion processing. Nat. Mater. 10, 382–388 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Shulaker, M. M. et al. Three-dimensional integration of nanotechnologies for computing and data storage on a single chip. Nature 547, 74–78 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kwon, J. et al. Three-dimensional monolithic integration in flexible printed organic transistors. Nat. Commun. 10, 54 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Chen, H., Cao, Y., Zhang, J. & Zhou, C. Large-scale complementary macroelectronics using hybrid integration of carbon nanotubes and IGZO thin-film transistors. Nat. Commun. 5, 4097 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Rembert, T., Battaglia, C., Anders, A. & Javey, A. Room temperature oxide deposition approach to fully transparent, all-oxide thin-film transistors. Adv. Mater. 27, 6090–6095 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yeom, H.-I., Ko, J. B., Mun, G. & Park, S.-H. K. High mobility polycrystalline indium oxide thin-film transistors by means of plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition. J. Mater. Chem. C. 4, 6873–6880 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Martinez-Landeros, V. H. et al. Low-temperature thin film transistors based on pulsed laser deposited CdS active layers. Semicond. Sci. Tech. 34, 025008(2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Stinner, F. S. et al. Flexible, high-speed CdSe nanocrystal integrated circuits. Nano Lett. 15, 7155–7160 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Sirringhaus, H. 25th Anniversary Article: Organic field-effect transistors: the path beyond amorphous silicon. Adv. Mater. 26, 1319–1335 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Shahrjerdi, D., Hekmatshoar, B., Mohajerzadeh, S., Khakifirooz, A. & Robertson, M. High mobility poly-Ge thin-film transistors fabricated on flexible plastic substrates at temperatures below 130 °C. J. Electron. Mater. 33, 353–357 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Fortunato, E., Barquinha, P. & Martins, R. Oxide semiconductor thin-film transistors: a review of recent advances. Adv. Mater. 24, 2945–2986 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Powell, M. J. The physics of amorphous-silicon thin-film transistors. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 36, 2753–2763 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Geier, M. L. et al. Solution-processed carbon nanotube thin-film complementary static random access memory. Nat. Nanotechnol. 10, 944–948 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Park, H. et al. High-density integration of carbon nanotubes via chemical self-assembly. Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 787–791 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Chen, B. et al. Highly uniform carbon nanotube field-effect transistors and medium scale integrated circuits. Nano Lett. 16, 5120–5128 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Cao, Q. et al. Arrays of single-walled carbon nanotubes with full surface coverage for high-performance electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 180–186 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Ko, H. et al. Ultrathin compound semiconductor on insulator layers for high-performance nanoscale transistors. Nature 468, 286–289 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Ahn, J.-H. et al. Heterogeneous three-dimensional electronics by use of printed semiconductor nanomaterials. Science 314, 1754–1757 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Wang, Y. et al. Field-effect transistors made from solution-grown two-dimensional tellurene. Nat. Electron. 1, 228–236 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhou, G. et al. High-mobility helical tellurium field-effect transistors enabled by transfer-free, low-temperature direct growth. Adv. Mater. 30, 1803109 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Dutton, R. W. & Muller, R. S. Electrical properties of tellurium thin films. Proc. IEEE 59, 1511–1517 (1971).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Okuyama, K. & Kumagai, Y. Grain growth of evaporated Te films on a heated and cooled substrate. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 1473–1477 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Weimer, P. A p-type tellurium thin-film transistor. Proc. IEEE 52, 608–609 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Okuyama, K., Yamamoto, H. & Kumagai, Y. Effect of Au nucleation centers and deposition rate on crystallinity and electronic properties of evaporated Te films. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 105–111 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Dutton, R. & Muller, R. Large grain tellurium thin films. Thin Solid Films 11, 229–236 (1972).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Wu, W., Qiu, G., Wang, Y., Wang, R. & Ye, P. Tellurene: its physical properties, scalable nanomanufacturing, and device applications. Chem. Soc. Rev. 47, 7203–7212 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Chen, J. et al. Ultrathin β-tellurium layers grown on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite by molecular-beam epitaxy. Nanoscale 9, 15945–15948 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Ellmer, K. & Mientus, R. Carrier transport in polycrystalline ITO and ZnO: Al II: the influence of grain barriers and boundaries. Thin Solid Films 516, 5829–5835 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Dimitriadis, C. A., Coxon, P. A., Dozsa, L., Papadimitriou, L. & Economou, N. Performance of thin-film transistors on polysilicon films grown by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition at various pressures. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 39, 598–606 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Franklin, A. D. Nanomaterials in transistors: from high-performance to thin-film applications. Science 349, aab2750 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Synthesis work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 within the Electronic Materials Program (No. KC1201). Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. We thank N. Tamura for help with XRD measurements.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Chunsong Zhao, Chaoliang Tan.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Chunsong Zhao, Chaoliang Tan, Der-Hsien Lien, Matin Amani, Mark Hettick, Hnin Yin Yin Nyein, Zhen Yuan, Lu Li & Ali Javey

  2. Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Chunsong Zhao, Chaoliang Tan, Der-Hsien Lien, Matin Amani, Mark Hettick, Hnin Yin Yin Nyein, Zhen Yuan, Lu Li & Ali Javey

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Chunsong Zhao, Xiaohui Song, Hnin Yin Yin Nyein & Mary C. Scott

  4. The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Xiaohui Song & Mary C. Scott

Authors
  1. Chunsong Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Chaoliang Tan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Der-Hsien Lien
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xiaohui Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Matin Amani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Mark Hettick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Hnin Yin Yin Nyein
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Zhen Yuan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Lu Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Mary C. Scott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Ali Javey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

C.Z., C.T. and A.J. conceived the idea for the project. C.Z. and A.J. designed the experiments. C.Z., M.A. and Z.Y. fabricated the devices. C.Z. performed the device measurements. C.Z., C.T., X.S., D.-H.L., M.H., H.Y.Y.N., L.L. and M.S. performed material characterizations. C.Z. and A.J analysed the data. C.Z., C.T., D.-H.L. and A.J. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Javey.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks Takhee Lee, SungWoo Nam and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–10.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhao, C., Tan, C., Lien, DH. et al. Evaporated tellurium thin films for p-type field-effect transistors and circuits. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 53–58 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0585-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0585-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing