Near-thermal limit gating in heavily-doped III-V semiconductor nanowires using polymer electrolytes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electrolyte gating can achieve near-thermal limit performance in heavily-doped GaAs nanowire transistors, surpassing traditional gate methods and opening new avenues for nanoscale device applications.

Contribution

It shows electrolyte gating remains effective at high doping levels where metal-oxide gates fail, achieving near-thermal limit sub-threshold swing in p-type nanowire transistors.

Findings

Sub-threshold swing of 75 mV/dec, within 25% of thermal limit

Effective gating at doping levels where metal-oxide gates fail

Potential for improved nanowire transistor performance

Abstract

Doping is a common route to reducing nanowire transistor on-resistance but has limits. High doping level gives significant loss in gate performance and ultimately complete gate failure. We show that electrolyte gating remains effective even when the Be doping in our GaAs nanowires is so high that traditional metal-oxide gates fail. In this regime we obtain a combination of sub-threshold swing and contact resistance that surpasses the best existing p-type nanowire MOSFETs. Our sub-threshold swing of 75 mV/dec is within 25% of the room-temperature thermal limit and comparable with n-InP and n-GaAs nanowire MOSFETs. Our results open a new path to extending the performance and application of nanowire transistors, and motivate further work on improved solid electrolytes for nanoscale device applications.