Breakdown of Ohm's Law by Disorders in Low-Dimensional Transistors

TL;DR

This paper uncovers how disorder-induced electron localization causes the breakdown of Ohm's law in low-dimensional transistors, providing a new physical understanding crucial for future device optimization.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative model explaining disorder effects in low-dimensional transistors and unifies experimental observations under a single localization framework.

Findings

Disorder causes Ohm's law breakdown in low-dimensional conductors.

The model explains experimental results across various transistor conditions.

Localization effects are intrinsic to low-dimensional electronic transport.

Abstract

Ohm's law provides a fundamental framework for understanding charge transport in conductors and underpins the concept of electrical scaling that has enabled the continuous advancement of modern CMOS technologies. As transistors are scaled to even smaller dimensions, device channels inevitably enter low-dimensional regimes to achieve higher performance. Low-dimensional materials such as atomically thin oxide semiconductors, 2D van der Waals semiconductors, and 1D carbon nanotubes, have thus emerged as key candidates for extending Moore's law. Here, we reveal the fundamental distinction between three-dimensional and low-dimensional conductors arising from disorder-induced electron localization, which leads to the breakdown of Ohm's law and lateral linear scaling. We develop a quantitative model that captures the role of the disordered region, a unique characteristic intrinsically to low-dimensional transistors. Furthermore, the disorder-induced localization framework consistently explains experimental observations in atomically thin In2O3 field-effect transistors across variations in channel length, temperature, thickness, and post-annealing conditions. This work establishes a unified physical picture for understanding and optimizing disorder-driven electronic transport in low-dimensional transistors.