Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully developed multi-layered in-plane transition metal dichalcogenide junctions, demonstrating their potential use in tunnel field-effect transistors for ultra-low power consumption in integrated circuits. Utilizing a chemical vapor deposition technique, the team created TMDC junctions with unprecedented high carrier concentration and displayed negative differential resistance, a key feature of tunneling.
Chemical vapor deposition can be used to grow a multi-layered TMDC structure out of a different TMDC. Credit: Tokyo Metropolitan University A team of scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University led by Associate Professor Yasumitsu Miyata has been working on making nanostructures out of transition metal dichalcogenides, a mixture of transition metals and group 16 elements. Transition metal dichalcogenides are excellent candidate materials for creating TFETs. Their recent successes have allowed them to stitch together single-atom-thick layers of crystalline TMDC sheets over unprecedented lengths.
Scanning transmission electron microscopy picture of a multi-layered junction between tungsten diselenide and molybdenum disulfide. Schematic of the circuit used to characterize the multi-layered p-n junction between niobium doped and undoped molybdenum disulfide. Schematic of energy levels of conduction band minimum and valence band maximum across the junction. The Fermi level indicates the level to which electrons fill the energy levels at zero temperature.