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Vertical field-effect transistor based on graphene–WS2 heterostructures for flexible and transparent electronics

Nature Nanotechnology volume 8, pages 100–103 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The celebrated electronic properties of graphene1,2 have opened the way for materials just one atom thick3 to be used in the post-silicon electronic era4. An important milestone was the creation of heterostructures based on graphene and other two-dimensional crystals, which can be assembled into three-dimensional stacks with atomic layer precision5,6,7. Such layered structures have already demonstrated a range of fascinating physical phenomena8,9,10,11, and have also been used in demonstrating a prototype field-effect tunnelling transistor12, which is regarded to be a candidate for post-CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) technology. The range of possible materials that could be incorporated into such stacks is very large. Indeed, there are many other materials with layers linked by weak van der Waals forces that can be exfoliated3,13 and combined together to create novel highly tailored heterostructures. Here, we describe a new generation of field-effect vertical tunnelling transistors where two-dimensional tungsten disulphide serves as an atomically thin barrier between two layers of either mechanically exfoliated or chemical vapour deposition-grown graphene. The combination of tunnelling (under the barrier) and thermionic (over the barrier) transport allows for unprecedented current modulation exceeding 1 × 106 at room temperature and very high ON current. These devices can also operate on transparent and flexible substrates.

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Figure 1: Graphene–WS2 heterotransistor.
Figure 2: Room-temperature tunnelling transport measurements in the graphene–WS2 transistor.
Figure 3: Temperature-dependent transistor characteristics.
Figure 4: Transistor operation on flexible and transparent substrates.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Research Council, European Commission FP7, the Engineering and Physical Research Council (UK), the Royal Society, the US Office of Naval Research, the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Körber Foundation. A.M. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Y-J.K. was supported by the Global Research Laboratory Program (2011-0021972) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Thanasis Georgiou, Liam Britnell, Yong-Jin Kim, Laurence Eaves, Leonid A. Ponomarenko, Kostya S. Novoselov & Artem Mishchenko

  2. Manchester Centre for Mesoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Rashid Jalil, Branson D. Belle, Roman V. Gorbachev & Andre K. Geim

  3. Institute for Microelectronics Technology RAS, Chernogolovka, 142432, Russia

    Sergey V. Morozov

  4. Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-747, Korea

    Yong-Jin Kim

  5. Materials Science Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, M1 7HS, UK

    Ali Gholinia & Sarah J. Haigh

  6. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    Oleg Makarovsky & Laurence Eaves

Authors
  1. Thanasis Georgiou
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  2. Rashid Jalil
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  13. Andre K. Geim
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Contributions

T.G., R.J., B.D.B. and R.V.G. fabricated the devices. Y.J.K. grew the CVD graphene. A.G. and S.J.H. carried out STEM imaging. O.M. and L.E. designed the set-up for low-current measurements. L.B., S.V.M. and A.M. performed transport measurements. L.A.P., A.K.G., K.S.N and A.M. conceived and designed the experiments. T.G., A.M. and K.S.N. wrote the manuscript. All authors made critical contributions to the work, discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Artem Mishchenko.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Georgiou, T., Jalil, R., Belle, B. et al. Vertical field-effect transistor based on graphene–WS2 heterostructures for flexible and transparent electronics. Nature Nanotech 8, 100–103 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2012.224

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