Impact of edge states on device performance of phosphorene heterojunction tunneling field effect transistors

Abstract

© 2016 The Royal Society of Chemistry.Black phosphorus (BP) tunneling field effect transistors (TFETs) using heterojunctions (Hes) are investigated by atomistic quantum transport simulations. It is observed that edge states have a great impact on the transport characteristics of BP He-TFETs, which results in the potential pinning effect and deterioration of gate control. However, the on-state current can be effectively enhanced by using hydrogen to saturate the edge dangling bonds in BP He-TFETs, by which means edge states are quenched. By extending layered BP with a smaller band gap to the channel region and modulating the BP thickness, the device performance of BP He-TFETs can be further optimized and can fulfil the requirements of the international technology road-map for semiconductors (ITRS) 2013 for low power applications. In 15 nm 3L-1L and 4L-1L BP He-TFETs along the armchair direction the on-state currents are over two times larger than the current required by ITRS 2013 and can reach above 103 μA μm-1 with the fixed off-state current of 10 pA μm-1. It is also found that the ambipolar effect can be effectively suppressed in BP He-TFETs.