Daniel Neumaier

Current Saturation and Voltage Gain in Bilayer Graphene Field Effect Transistors

The emergence of graphene with its unique electrical properties has triggered hopes in the electronic devices community regarding its exploitation as a channel material in field effect transistors. Graphene is especially promising for devices working at frequencies in the 100 GHz range. So far, graphene field effect transistors (GFETs) have shown cutoff frequencies up to 300 GHz, while exhibiting poor voltage gains, another important figure of merit for analog high frequency applications. In the present work, we show that the voltage gain of GFETs can be improved significantly by using bilayer graphene, where a band gap is introduced through a vertical electric displacement field. At a displacement field of -1.7 V/nm the bilayer GFETs exhibit an intrinsic voltage gain up to 35, a factor of 6 higher than the voltage gain in corresponding monolayer GFETs. The transconductance, which limits the cutoff frequency of a transistor, is not degraded by the displacement field and is similar in both monolayer and bilayer GFETs. Using numerical simulations based on an atomistic p(z) tight-binding Hamiltonian we demonstrate that this approach can be extended to sub-100 nm gate lengths.

High on/off ratios in bilayer graphene field effect transistors realized by surface dopants.

The unique property of bilayer graphene to show a band gap tunable by external electrical fields enables a variety of different device concepts with novel functionalities for electronic, optoelectronic, and sensor applications. So far the operation of bilayer graphene-based field effect transistors requires two individual gates to vary the channels conductance and to create a band gap. In this paper, we report on a method to increase the on/off ratio in single gated bilayer graphene field effect transistors by adsorbate doping. The adsorbate dopants on the upper side of the graphene establish a displacement field perpendicular to the graphene surface breaking the inversion symmetry of the two graphene layers. Low-temperature measurements indicate that the increased on/off ratio is caused by the opening of a mobility gap.

Ultra-sensitive Hall sensors based on graphene encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride

The encapsulation of graphene in hexagonal boron nitride provides graphene on substrate with excellent material quality. Here, we present the fabrication and characterization of Hall sensor elements based on graphene boron nitride heterostructures, where we gain from high mobility and low charge carrier density at room temperature. We show a detailed device characterization including Hall effect measurements under vacuum and ambient conditions. We achieve a current- and voltage-related sensitivity of up to 5700 V/AT and 3 V/VT, respectively, outpacing state-of-the-art silicon and III/V Hall sensor devices. Finally, we extract a magnetic resolution limited by low frequency electric noise of less than 50 nT/ Hz making our graphene sensors highly interesting for industrial applications.

Electrical observation of a tunable band gap in bilayer graphene nanoribbons at room temperature

We investigate the transport properties of double-gated bilayer graphene nanoribbons at room temperature. The devices were fabricated using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible processes. By analyzing the dependence of the resistance at the charge neutrality point as a function of the electric field applied perpendicular to the graphene surface, we show that a band gap in the density of states opens, reaching an effective value of ∼50 meV. This demonstrates the potential of bilayer graphene as channel material for a field-effect transistor in a conventional CMOS environment.

Graphene based low insertion loss electro-absorption modulator on SOI waveguide

Graphene is considered a promising material for broadband opto-electronics because of its linear and gapless band structure. Its optical conductivity can be significantly tuned electrostatically by shifting the Fermi level. Using mentioned property, we experimentally demonstrate a graphene based electro-absorption modulator with very low insertion loss. The device is realized on a silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguide operating at 1550 nm wavelength. The modulator shows a modulation depth of 16 dB and an insertion loss of 3.3 dB, surpassing GeSi and previous graphene based absorption modulators and being comparable to silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer based modulators.

Velocity saturation in few-layer MoS2 transistor

In this work, we perform an experimental investigation of the saturation velocity in MoS2 transistors. We use a simple analytical formula to reproduce experimental results and to extract the saturation velocity and the critical electric field. Scattering with optical phonons or with remote phonons may represent the main transport-limiting mechanism, leading to saturation velocity comparable to silicon, but much smaller than that obtained in suspended graphene and some III–V semiconductors.

Controlled Generation of a p–n Junction in a Waveguide Integrated Graphene Photodetector

With its electrically tunable light absorption and ultrafast photoresponse, graphene is a promising candidate for high-speed chip-integrated photonics. The generation mechanisms of photosignals in graphene photodetectors have been studied extensively in the past years. However, the knowledge about efficient light conversion at graphene p-n junctions has not yet been translated into high-performance devices. Here, we present a graphene photodetector integrated on a silicon slot-waveguide, acting as a dual gate to create a p-n junction in the optical absorption region of the device. While at zero bias the photothermoelectric effect is the dominant conversion process, an additional photoconductive contribution is identified in a biased configuration. Extrinsic responsivities of 35 mA/W, or 3.5 V/W, at zero bias and 76 mA/W at 300 mV bias voltage are achieved. The device exhibits a 3 dB bandwidth of 65 GHz, which is the highest value reported for a graphene-based photodetector.

Bilayer Graphene Transistors for Analog Electronics

In this paper, we investigate with theory and experiments the performance improvements achievable using bilayer graphene as channel material in field effect transistors for analog applications. Bilayer graphene provides larger output resistance than monolayer graphene, which translates in both higher voltage gain and higher maximum frequency oscillation. To experimentally prove bilayer graphene potential as a channel material, simple circuits have been fabricated and tested, i.e., an amplifier and a frequency doubler. We show that they largely outperform similar circuits built with monolayer-graphene devices.

Integrated Ring Oscillators based on high-performance Graphene Inverters

The road to the realization of complex integrated circuits based on graphene remains an open issue so far. Current graphene based integrated circuits are limited by low integration depth and significant doping variations, representing major road blocks for the success of graphene in future electronic devices. Here we report on the realization of graphene based integrated inverters and ring oscillators. By using an optimized process technology for high-performance graphene transistors with local back-gate electrodes we demonstrate that complex graphene based integrated circuits can be manufactured reproducibly, circumventing problems associated with doping variations. The fabrication process developed here is scalable and fully compatible with conventional silicon technology. Therefore, our results pave the way towards applications based on graphene transistors in future electronic devices.

Experimental verification of electro-refractive phase modulation in graphene

Graphene has been considered as a promising material for opto-electronic devices, because of its tunable and wideband optical properties. In this work, we demonstrate electro-refractive phase modulation in graphene at wavelengths from 1530 to 1570 nm. By integrating a gated graphene layer in a silicon-waveguide based Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the key parameters of a phase modulator like change in effective refractive index, insertion loss and absorption change are extracted. These experimentally obtained values are well reproduced by simulations and design guidelines are provided to make graphene devices competitive to contemporary silicon based phase modulators for on-chip applications.