Ambipolar Barristors for Reconfigurable Logic Circuits.
Vertical heterostructures based on graphene have emerged as a unique architecture for novel electronic devices with unusual characteristics. Here we report a new design of vertical ambipolar barristors based on metal-graphene-silicon-graphene sandwich structure, using the bottom graphene as a gate-tunable "active contact", the top graphene as an adaptable Ohmic contact, and the low doping thin silicon layer as the switchable channel. Importantly, with finite density of states and weak screening effect of graphene, we demonstrate, for the first time, that both the carrier concentration and majority carrier type in the sandwiched silicon can be readily modulated by gate potential penetrating through graphene. It can thus enable a new type of ambipolar barristors with an ON-OFF ratio exceeding 103. Significantly, these ambipolar barristors can be flexibly configured into either p-type or n-type transistors and used to create integrated circuits with reconfigurable logic functions. This unconventional device structure and ambipolar reconfigurable characteristics can open up exciting opportunities in future electronics based on graphene or two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Yuan
Y
Liu
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Guo
G
Zhang
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Hailong
H
Zhou
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Zheng
Z
Li
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Rui
R
Cheng
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Yang
0000-0003-3148-7678
Y
Xu
NG/NEXT, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, California 90278, United States.
Vincent
V
Gambin
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.|California Nanosystems Institute, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Yu
Y
Huang
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.|California Nanosystems Institute, University of California , Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
Xiangfeng
0000-0002-4321-6288
X
Duan
Vertical transistor; ambipolar; graphene weak screening; tunable diode; van der Waals heterostructure