A Universal van der Waals Tunneling Injector for Monolayer CMOS
Open Access
- 12 August 2026
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Advanced Materials
- Vol. 38 (57) , e74597
Abstract
Two‐dimensional (2D) semiconductors are poised to extend logic technology to the atomic‐thickness limit, yet monolayer complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) has been largely hampered by polarity‐dependent, thermionic‐emission‐dominated contacts that preclude a unified injection solution. Here, we introduce degenerately doped, crystalline SnSe 2 as a universal source‐side van der Waals (vdW) injector capable of enforcing all‐tunneling carrier injection into both p ‐ and n ‐type monolayer channels. The combination of a large electron affinity (∼5.1 eV), degenerate carrier density (>10 19 cm −3 ), and atomically uniform vdW interfacial coupling enables polarity‐tailored tunneling mechanisms while effectively suppressing interfacial gap states. In p ‐type WSe 2 , a type‐III (broken gap) alignment drives efficient band‐to‐band tunneling, yielding a >1000‐fold enhancement in drive current over conventional metal electrodes. In n ‐type MoS 2 , the SnSe 2 injector forms a type‐I heterojunction within the sub‐depletion‐width monolayer body, enabling a gate‐tunable injection that evolves from field‐controlled Fowler–Nordheim‐like tunneling to thickness‐limited tunneling, achieving an on/off ratio > 10 9 and a subthreshold swing below 70 mV dec −1 . Integrating this single‐material injector, we demonstrate a monolayer CMOS inverter with a maximum voltage gain of ∼340 at V DD = 2 V, establishing degenerate SnSe 2 as a dual‐polarity vdW injector and providing a platform for high‐performance, low‐power 2D integrated circuits.Keywords
Funding Information
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (RS‐2024‐00336695)
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (RS‐2024‐00444182)
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (RS‐2025‐23323754)
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (RS‐2025‐23323228)
- Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (RS‐2026‐25542094)
- Ministry of Education (RS‐2025‐02633565)
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (12393831)
This publication has 47 references indexed in Scilit:
- Selective Charge Injection via Topological van der Waals Contacts for Barrier‐Free p ‐Type TMD TransistorsAdvanced Functional Materials, 2025
- Contact Engineering for Contact Resistance Minimization of Conventional, III-V, and 2D FETs2024
- Phase‐Centric MOCVD Enabled Synthetic Approaches for Wafer‐Scale 2D Tin SelenidesAdvanced Materials, 2024
- Flexible Complementary Metal‐Oxide‐Semiconductor Inverter Based on 2D p‐type WSe2and n‐type MoS2Physica Status Solidi (a), 2024
- Fermi‐Level Pinning‐Free WSe2 Transistors via 2D Van der Waals Metal Contacts and Their CircuitsAdvanced Materials, 2022
- Homogeneous 2D MoTe2 p–n Junctions and CMOS Inverters formed by Atomic‐Layer‐Deposition‐Induced DopingAdvanced Materials, 2017
- Surface Charge Transfer Doping of Low‐Dimensional Nanostructures toward High‐Performance NanodevicesAdvanced Materials, 2016
- Indirect Bandgap Puddles in Monolayer MoS2 by Substrate‐Induced Local StrainAdvanced Materials, 2016
- Ultrathin SnSe2 Flakes Grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition for High‐Performance PhotodetectorsAdvanced Materials, 2015
- Effect of the damping function in dispersion corrected density functional theoryJournal of Computational Chemistry, 2011