Charge Transfer Induced Polarity Switching in Carbon Nanotube Transistors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how charge transfer interactions with specific molecules can switch the polarity of carbon nanotube transistors and improve their performance by tuning their charge states and threshold voltages.

Contribution

It introduces a method to reversibly switch CNTFET polarity and modulate threshold voltage using charge transfer with tailored molecules, advancing transistor control.

Findings

Hydrazine converts p-type to n-type CNTFETs with improved performance.

Polyaniline oxidation states enable polarity switching.

Threshold voltage can be tuned by molecular engineering.

Abstract

We probed the charge transfer interaction between the amine-containing molecules: hydrazine, polyaniline and aminobutyl phosphonic acid, and carbon nanotube field effect transistors (CNTFETs). We successfully converted p-type CNTFETs to n-type and drastically improved the device performance in both the ON- and OFF- transistor states utilizing hydrazine as dopant. We effectively switched the transistor polarity between p- and n- type by accessing different oxidation states of polyaniline. We also demonstrated the flexibility of modulating the threshold voltage (Vth) of a CNTFET by engineering various charge-accepting and -donating groups in the same molecule.