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Superionic fluoride gate dielectrics with low diffusion barrier for two-dimensional electronics

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Exploration of new dielectrics with a large capacitive coupling is an essential topic in modern electronics when conventional dielectrics suffer from the leakage issue near the breakdown limit. Here, to address this looming challenge, we demonstrate that rare-earth metal fluorides with extremely low ion migration barriers can generally exhibit an excellent capacitive coupling over 20 μF cm−2 (with an equivalent oxide thickness of ~0.15 nm and a large effective dielectric constant near 30) and great compatibility with scalable device manufacturing processes. Such a static dielectric capability of superionic fluorides is exemplified by MoS2 transistors exhibiting high on/off current ratios over 108, ultralow subthreshold swing of 65 mV dec−1 and ultralow leakage current density of ~10−6 A cm−2. Therefore, the fluoride-gated logic inverters can achieve notably higher static voltage gain values (surpassing ~167) compared with a conventional dielectric. Furthermore, the application of fluoride gating enables the demonstration of NAND, NOR, AND and OR logic circuits with low static energy consumption. In particular, the superconductor–insulator transition at the clean-limit Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ can also be realized through fluoride gating. Our findings highlight fluoride dielectrics as a pioneering platform for advanced electronic applications and for tailoring emergent electronic states in condensed matter.

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Fig. 1: Crystal structure, dielectric properties and F− ion migration for a fluoride dielectric catalogue.
Fig. 2: Fluoride-gated MoS2 transistors.
Fig. 3: CMOS inverter based on n-type MoS2 and p-type WSe2 transistors.
Fig. 4: Linear logic gates based on fluoride-gated n-type MoS2 and p-type WSe2 transistors.
Fig. 5: Continuous tuning of the superconductor–insulator transition in Bi-2212 with fluoride gating.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 92365203 (H.Y.) and 52072168 (H.Y.)) and the National Key R&D Program of China (grant no. 2021YFA1202901 (J.H.)). The work at Brookhaven National Laboratory was supported by grants from the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (grant no. DOE-sc0012704 (G.G.)). Y.C. and H.Y.H. acknowledge support from the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (grant no. DE-AC02-76SF00515). We would also like to thank Y. Shen and Z. Liu for their assistance on the electrical transport measurements.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Kui Meng, Zeya Li, Peng Chen, Xingyue Ma.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Kui Meng, Zeya Li, Peng Chen, Xingyue Ma, Junwei Huang, Jiayi Li, Feng Qin, Caiyu Qiu, Yilin Zhang, Yu Deng, Yurong Yang & Hongtao Yuan

  2. State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics and Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Ding Zhang & Qi-Kun Xue

  3. Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Genda Gu

  4. Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Harold Y. Hwang & Yi Cui

  5. Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Harold Y. Hwang & Yi Cui

  6. Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Harold Y. Hwang

  7. Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Qi-Kun Xue

  8. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Yi Cui

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Contributions

H.Y., Q.-K.X., Y.C. and H.Y.H. conceived and designed the experiments. K.M., Z.L., P.C. and Y.Z. performed the device fabrications. K.M. and P.C. performed the EIS measurements. K.M., F.Q., D.Z. and J.H. performed the electrical transport measurements. C.Q. performed the atomic force microscopy measurements. G.G. provided the high-quality crystals. J.L. and Y.D. performed the STEM characterization. X.M. and Y.Y. performed the theoretical calculations. K.M., Z.L. and F.Q. analysed the data. K.M., Z.L. and H.Y. wrote the paper with input from all authors.

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Correspondence to Yurong Yang, Qi-Kun Xue, Yi Cui or Hongtao Yuan.

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Meng, K., Li, Z., Chen, P. et al. Superionic fluoride gate dielectrics with low diffusion barrier for two-dimensional electronics. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01675-5

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