Contact Resistance Engineering in WS2-Based FET with MoS2 Under-Contact Interlayer: A Statistical Approach

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Abstract
One of the primary factors hindering the development of 2D material-based devices is the difficulty of overcoming fabrication processes, which pose a challenge in achieving low-resistance contacts. Widely used metal deposition methods lead to unfavorable Fermi level pinning effect (FLP), which prevents control over the Schottky barrier height at the metal/2D material junction. We propose to harness the FLP effect to lower contact resistance in field-effect transistors (FETs) by using an additional 2D interlayer at the conducting channel and metallic contact interface (under-contact interlayer). To do so, we developed a new approach using the gold-assisted transfer method, which enables the fabrication of heterostructures consisting of TMDs monolayers with complex shapes, prepatterned using e-beam lithography, with lateral dimensions even down to 100 nm. We designed and demonstrated tungsten disulfide (WS2) monolayer-based devices in which the molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) monolayer is placed only in the contact area of the FET, creating an Au/MoS2/WS2 junction, which effectively reduces contact resistance by over 60% and improves the Ion/Ioff ratio 10 times in comparison to WS2-based devices without MoS2 under-contact interlayer. The enhancement in the device operation arises from the FLP effect occurring only at the interface between the metal and the first layer of the MoS2/WS2 heterostructure. This results in favorable band alignment, which enhances the current flow through the junction. To ensure the reproducibility of our devices, we systematically analyzed 160 FET devices fabricated with under-contact interlayer and without it. Statistical analysis shows a consistent improvement in the operation of the device and reveals the impact of contact resistance on key FET performance indicators.
Funding Information
  • Narodowe Centrum Nauki (2018/31/B/ST3/02450, 2020/39/O/ST5/00416)

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