Hsin-Ying Chiu

100-GHz Transistors from Wafer-Scale Epitaxial Graphene

The maximum switching frequency of these devices exceeds that of silicon transistors with similar gate-electrode dimensions. The high carrier mobility of graphene has been exploited in field-effect transistors that operate at high frequencies. Transistors were fabricated on epitaxial graphene synthesized on the silicon face of a silicon carbide wafer, achieving a cutoff frequency of 100 gigahertz for a gate length of 240 nanometers. The high-frequency performance of these epitaxial graphene transistors exceeds that of state-of-the-art silicon transistors of the same gate length.

Atomic-Scale Mass Sensing Using Carbon Nanotube Resonators

Ultraminiaturized mass spectrometers are highly sought-after tools, with numerous applications in areas such as environmental protection, exploration, and drug development. We realize atomic scale mass sensing using doubly clamped suspended carbon nanotube nanomechanical resonators, in which their single-electron transistor properties allows self-detection of the nanotube vibration. We use the detection of shifts in the resonance frequency of the nanotubes to sense and determine the inertial mass of atoms as well as the mass of the nanotube. This highly sensitive mass detection capability may eventually enable applications such as on-chip detection, analysis, and identification of compounds.

Utilization of a Buffered Dielectric to Achieve High Field-Effect Carrier Mobility in Graphene Transistors

We utilize an organic polymer buffer layer between graphene and conventional gate dielectrics in top-gated graphene transistors. Unlike other insulators, this dielectric stack does not significantly degrade carrier mobility, allowing for high field-effect mobilities to be retained in top-gate operation. This is demonstrated in both two-point and four-point analysis and in the high-frequency operation of a graphene transistor. Temperature dependence of the carrier mobility suggests that phonons are the dominant scatterers in these devices.

Ultrafast Charge Separation and Indirect Exciton Formation in a MoS2–MoSe2 van der Waals Heterostructure

We observe subpicosecond charge separation and formation of indirect excitons a van der Waals heterostructure formed by molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum diselenide monolayers. The sample is fabricated by manually stacking monolayer MoS2 and MoSe2 flakes prepared by mechanical exfoliation. Photoluminescence measurements confirm the formation of an effective heterojunction. In the transient absorption measurements, an ultrafast laser pulse resonantly injects excitons in the MoSe2 layer of the heterostructure. Differential reflection of a probe pulse tuned to the MoS2 exciton resonance is immediately observed following the pump excitation. This proves ultrafast transfer of electrons from MoSe2 to MoS2 layers, despite the strong Coulomb attraction from the holes in the resonantly excited excitons. Conversely, when excitons are selectively injected in MoS2, holes transfer to MoSe2 on an ultrafast time scale, too, as observed by measuring the differential reflection of a probe tuned to the MoSe2 resonance. The ultrafast charge transfer process is followed by the formation of spatially indirect excitons with electrons and holes residing in different layers. The lifetime of these indirect excitons are found to be longer than that of the direct excitons in individual MoS2 and MoSe2 monolayers.

Ballistic Phonon Thermal Transport in Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

We report electrical transport experiments, using the phenomenon of electrical breakdown to perform thermometry, that probe the thermal properties of individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Our results show that nanotubes can readily conduct heat by ballistic phonon propagation. We determine the thermal conductance quantum, the ultimate limit to thermal conductance for a single phonon channel, and find good agreement with theoretical calculations. Moreover, our results suggest a breakdown mechanism of thermally activated C-C bond breaking coupled with the electrical stress of carrying approximately 10(12) A/m2. We also demonstrate a current-driven self-heating technique to improve the conductance of nanotube devices dramatically.

Thermal infrared emission from biased graphene

Graphene is a 2-dimensional material with high carrier mobility and thermal conductivity, suitable for high-speed electronics. Conduction and valence bands touch at the Dirac point. The absorptivity of single-layer graphene is 2.3%, nearly independent of wavelength. Here we investigate the thermal radiation from biased graphene transistors. We find that the emission spectrum of single-layer graphene follows that of a grey body with constant emissivity (1.6 \pm 0.8)%. Most importantly, we can extract the temperature distribution in the ambipolar graphene channel, as confirmed by Stokes/anti-Stokes measurements. The biased graphene exhibits a temperature maximum whose location can be controlled by the gate voltage. We show that this peak in temperature reveals the spatial location of the minimum in carrier density, i.e. the Dirac point.The high carrier mobility and thermal conductivity of graphene make it a candidate material for future high-speed electronic devices. Although the thermal behaviour of high-speed devices can limit their performance, the thermal properties of graphene devices remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that spatially resolved thermal radiation from biased graphene transistors can be used to extract the temperature distribution, carrier densities and spatial location of the Dirac point in the graphene channel. The graphene exhibits a temperature maximum with a location that can be controlled by the gate voltage. Stationary hot spots are also observed. Infrared emission represents a convenient and non-invasive characterization tool for graphene devices.

Dual-Gate Graphene FETs With

A dual-gate graphene field-effect transistor is presented, which shows improved radio-frequency (RF) performance by reducing the access resistance using electrostatic doping. With a carrier mobility of 2700 cm2/V · s, a cutoff frequency of 50 GHz is demonstrated in a 350-nm-gate-length device. This fT value is the highest frequency reported to date for any graphene transistor, and it also exceeds that of Si MOS field-effect transistors at the same gate length, illustrating the potential of graphene for RF applications.

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Atomically thin molybdenum disulfide is emerging as a new nanomaterial with potential applications in the fields of electronic and photonics. Charge carrier dynamics plays an essential role in determining its electronic and optical properties. We report spatially and temporally resolved pump-probe studies of charge carriers in atomically thin molybdenum disulfide samples fabricated by mechanical exfoliation. Carriers are injected by interband absorption of a 390-nm pump pulse and detected by measuring differential reflection of a time-delayed and spatially scanned probe pulse that is tuned to an exciton transition. Several parameters on charge carrier dynamics are deduced, including carrier lifetime, diffusion coefficient, diffusion length, and mobility.

of 50 GHz

We investigate electric transport in graphene on SiO2 in the high field limit and report on the formation of p-n junctions. Previously, doping of graphene has been achieved by using multiple electrostatic gates, or charge transfer from adsorbants. Here we demonstrate a novel approach to create p-n junctions by changing the local electrostatic potential in the vicinity of one of the contacts without the use of extra gates. The approach is based on the electronic modification not of the graphene but of the substrate and produces a well-behaved, sharp junction whose position and height can be controlled.

Ultrafast and spatially resolved studies of charge carriers in atomically thin molybdenum disulfide

We observe optical third harmonic generation from graphene and few-layer graphite flakes produced by exfoliation. The emission scales with the cube of the intensity of the incident near-infrared femtosecond pulses and has a wavelength that is one-third of the incident wavelength, both consistent with third harmonic generation. We extract an effective third-order susceptibility for graphene that is on the order of 1e-16 square meter per square volt, which is comparable to that for materials that are resonantly excited, but larger than for materials that are transparent at the fundamental and third harmonic wavelengths. By measuring a set of flakes with different numbers of atomic layers, we find that the emission scales with the square of the number of atomic layers, which suggests that the susceptibility of graphene is independent of layer number, at least for a few layers.