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Monolayer black phosphorus and germanium arsenide transistors via van der Waals channel thinning

Nature Electronics volume 7, pages 131–137 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors can potentially be used to create scaled electronic devices. However, for a number of promising 2D materials—such as black phosphorus and germanium arsenide—the fabrication of monolayer transistors is challenging and is limited by the difficulties in forming robust electrical contacts with the delicate 2D materials. Here, we report the fabrication of monolayer black phosphorus and germanium arsenide transistors with three-dimensional raised contacts using a van der Waals peeling technique. Through layer-by-layer mechanical peeling, the channel region of a multilayer black phosphorus transistor can be gradually reduced to monolayer thickness without degrading its delicate lattice and while retaining a multilayer contact region. Using the technique, we measure the electrical properties of the same 2D transistor with different channel thicknesses. We find that the carrier mobility of black phosphorus drops sharply when reducing body thickness, behaving more like a conventional bulk semiconductor rather than a pure van der Waals semiconductor.

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Fig. 1: Fabrication processes for vdW peeling of BP.
Fig. 2: Construction of homo-junctions and homo-superlattices for various 2D semiconductors.
Fig. 3: In situ electrical measurement of BP transistors with layer-by-layer channel thinning.
Fig. 4: Monolayer 2D transistors with 3D raised contact.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Key R&D Programme of China (Grant No. 2018YFA0703700 and No. 2021YFA1200503) and from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51991340, 51991341, 61874041 and 91964203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Micro-Nano Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, China

    Wanying Li, Quanyang Tao, Zhiwei Li, Zheyi Lu, Yang Chen, Yiliu Wang, Lei Liao & Yuan Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Devices and Integrated Technology, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Guanhua Yang

  3. Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China

    Yao Wen & Jun He

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  1. Wanying Li
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Contributions

Y.L. conceived the research. Y.L. and J.H. designed the experiments. W.L. performed the sample fabrication and device measurement. Q.T., Z. Lu, G.Y. and Z. Li contributed to the data analysis. Y.C., Y.Wang, Y.Wen, L.L. and J.H. contributed to AFM and optical characterization. Y.L. and W.L. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

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Correspondence to Yuan Liu or Jun He.

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Supplementary Note 1 and Figs. 1–10.

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Li, W., Tao, Q., Li, Z. et al. Monolayer black phosphorus and germanium arsenide transistors via van der Waals channel thinning. Nat Electron 7, 131–137 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-01087-8

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