title: High-Current Gain Two-Dimensional MoS₂-Base Hot-Electron Transistors.
abstract: The vertical transport of nonequilibrium charge carriers through semiconductor heterostructures has led to milestones in electronics with the development of the hot-electron transistor. Recently, significant advances have been made with atomically sharp heterostructures implementing various two-dimensional materials. Although graphene-base hot-electron transistors show great promise for electronic switching at high frequencies, they are limited by their low current gain. Here we show that, by choosing MoS2 and HfO2 for the filter barrier interface and using a noncrystalline semiconductor such as ITO for the collector, we can achieve an unprecedentedly high-current gain (α ∼ 0.95) in our hot-electron transistors operating at room temperature. Furthermore, the current gain can be tuned over 2 orders of magnitude with the collector-base voltage albeit this feature currently presents a drawback in the transistor performance metrics such as poor output resistance and poor intrinsic voltage gain. We anticipate our transistors will pave the way toward the realization of novel flexible 2D material-based high-density, low-energy, and high-frequency hot-carrier electronic applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Carlos M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.|Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica , Taipei 115, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yann-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Caifu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Center for Nanotechnology, Chung Yuan Christian University , Chungli 32023, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jyun-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Xufeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Aryan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Navabi
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Jianshi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Montazeri
authors.affiliation: Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California 92152, United States.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Adleman
authors.affiliation: Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California 92152, United States.
authors.forename: Mitchell B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Lerner
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Center for Nanotechnology, Chung Yuan Christian University , Chungli 32023, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yuan-Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) , Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Lain-Jong
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica , Taipei 115, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chii-Dong
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors.forename: Kang L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: 2D materials; MoS2; high-current gain; hot-electron transport; transition metal dichalcogenides