Large-area, low-voltage, anti-ambipolar heterojunctions from solution-processed semiconductors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates large-area, low-voltage heterojunctions using solution-processed semiconductors, enabling scalable and uniform devices with anti-ambipolar characteristics for advanced electronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable method to create van der Waals heterojunctions from solution-processed semiconductors, overcoming previous fabrication challenges.

Findings

High spatial uniformity at wafer scale

Anti-ambipolar transfer characteristics with high on/off ratios

Suitable for electronic, optoelectronic, and telecommunication applications

Abstract

The emergence of semiconducting materials with inert or dangling bond-free surfaces has created opportunities to form van der Waals heterostructures without the constraints of traditional epitaxial growth. For example, layered two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors have been incorporated into heterostructure devices with gate-tunable electronic and optical functionalities. However, 2D materials present processing challenges that have prevented these heterostructures from being produced with sufficient scalability and/or homogeneity to enable their incorporation into large-area integrated circuits. Here, we extend the concept of van der Waals heterojunctions to semiconducting p-type single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) and n-type amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin films that can be solution-processed or sputtered with high spatial uniformity at the wafer scale. The resulting large-area, low-voltage p-n heterojunctions exhibit anti-ambipolar transfer characteristics with high on/off ratios that are well-suited for electronic, optoelectronic, and telecommunication technologies.