Yongsuk Choi

Probing Out-of-Plane Charge Transport in Black Phosphorus with Graphene-Contacted Vertical Field-Effect Transistors

Black phosphorus (BP) has recently emerged as a promising narrow band gap layered semiconductor with optoelectronic properties that bridge the gap between semimetallic graphene and wide band gap transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2. To date, BP field-effect transistors have utilized a lateral geometry with in-plane transport dominating device characteristics. In contrast, we present here a vertical field-effect transistor geometry based on a graphene/BP van der Waals heterostructure. The resulting device characteristics include high on-state current densities (>1600 A/cm(2)) and current on/off ratios exceeding 800 at low temperature. Two distinct charge transport mechanisms are identified, which are dominant for different regimes of temperature and gate voltage. In particular, the Schottky barrier between graphene and BP determines charge transport at high temperatures and positive gate voltages, whereas tunneling dominates at low temperatures and negative gate voltages. These results elucidate out-of-plane electronic transport in BP and thus have implications for the design and operation of BP-based van der Waals heterostructures.

Photocatalytic disinfection of E coli in a UV/TiO2‐immobilised optical‐fibre reactor

Photocatalytic disinfection using TiO2 particles suspended in a reactor involves two major problems; the exponential decrease of light availability due to the scattering of UV light by particles themselves and the difficulty of recycling particles. To resolve these problems, scratched optical-fibres, inserted in glass tubes were used to diffuse UV light uniformly in a reactor. Comparative disinfection studies using these optical-fibres were done in both cases of suspended and immobilised photocatalysts. Disinfection capability with the immobilised photocatalysts at 4.9 µE s−1 dm−3 was twice that of the slurry reactor. Survival ratios of less than 0.2 were obtained with a residence time of 50 min and an initial cell concentration of 10000 cfu cm−3 in the 6 dm3 plug-flow type reactor. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry

Low-Voltage Complementary Electronics from Ion-Gel-Gated Vertical Van der Waals Heterostructures

Low-voltage complementary circuits comprising n-type and p-type van der Waals heterojunction vertical field-effect transistors (VFETs) are demonstrated. The resulting VFETs possess high on-state current densities (>3000 A cm(-2) ) and on/off current ratios (>10(4) ) in a narrow voltage window (<3 V).

Multibit MoS2 Photoelectronic Memory with Ultrahigh Sensitivity

A novel multibit MoS2 photoelectronic nonvolatile memory device is developed by synergistically combining rational device designs and the efficient transfer of large-area MoS2 flakes. The MoS2 photoelectronic memory exhibits excellent memory characteristics, including a large programming/erasing current ratio that exceeds 107 , multilevel data storage of 3 bits (corresponding to eight levels), performance stability over 200 cycles, and stable data retention over 104 s.

Ultraclean and Direct Transfer of a Wafer‐Scale MoS2 Thin Film onto a Plastic Substrate

An ultraclean method to directly transfer a large-area MoS2 film from the original growth substrate to a flexible substrate by using epoxy glue is developed. The transferred film is observed to be free of wrinkles and cracks and to be as smooth as the film synthesized on the original substrate.

Modulation of Quantum Tunneling via a Vertical Two-Dimensional Black Phosphorus and Molybdenum Disulfide p–n Junction

Diverse diode characteristics were observed in two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) heterojunctions. The characteristics of a backward rectifying diode, a Zener diode, and a forward rectifying diode were obtained from the heterojunction through thickness modulation of the BP flake or back gate modulation. Moreover, a tunnel diode with a precursor to negative differential resistance can be realized by applying dual gating with a solid polymer electrolyte layer as a top gate dielectric material. Interestingly, a steep subthreshold swing of 55 mV/dec was achieved in a top-gated 2D BP-MoS2 junction. Our simple device architecture and chemical doping-free processing guaranteed the device quality. This work helps us understand the fundamentals of tunneling in 2D semiconductor heterostructures and shows great potential in future applications in integrated low-power circuits.

Monolithic Metal Oxide Transistors

We devised a simple transparent metal oxide thin film transistor architecture composed of only two component materials, an amorphous metal oxide and ion gel gate dielectric, which could be entirely assembled using room-temperature processes on a plastic substrate. The geometry cleverly takes advantage of the unique characteristics of the two components. An oxide layer is metallized upon exposure to plasma, leading to the formation of a monolithic source-channel-drain oxide layer, and the ion gel gate dielectric is used to gate the transistor channel effectively at low voltages through a coplanar gate. We confirmed that the method is generally applicable to a variety of sol-gel-processed amorphous metal oxides, including indium oxide, indium zinc oxide, and indium gallium zinc oxide. An inverter NOT logic device was assembled using the resulting devices as a proof of concept demonstration of the applicability of the devices to logic circuits. The favorable characteristics of these devices, including (i) the simplicity of the device structure with only two components, (ii) the benign fabrication processes at room temperature, (iii) the low-voltage operation under 2 V, and (iv) the excellent and stable electrical performances, together support the application of these devices to low-cost portable gadgets, i.e., cheap electronics.

On-Demand Doping of Graphene by Stamping with a Chemically Functionalized Rubber Lens

A customized graphene doping method was developed involving stamping using a chemically functionalized rubber lens as a novel design strategy for fabricating advanced two-dimensional (2D) materials-based electronic devices. Our stamping strategy enables deterministic control over the doping level and the spatial pattern of the doping on graphene. The dopants introduced onto graphene were locally and continuously controlled by directly stamping dopants using a chemically functionalized hemispherical rubber lens onto the graphene. The rubber lens was functionalized using two different dopants: poly(ethylene imine) to achieve n-type doping and bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amine to achieve p-type doping. The graphene doping was systematically controlled by varying both the contact area (between the rubber lens and the graphene) and the contact time. Graphene doping using a stamp with a chemically functionalized rubber lens was confirmed by both Raman spectroscopy and charge transport measurements. We theoretically modeled the conductance properties of the spatially doped graphene using the effective medium theory and found excellent agreement with the experimental results. Finally, complementary inverters were successfully demonstrated by connecting n-type and p-type graphene transistors fabricated using the stamping doping method. We believe that this versatile doping method for controlling charge transport in graphene will further promote graphene electronic device applications. The doping method introduced in this paper may also be applied to other emergent 2D materials to tightly modulate the electrical properties in advanced electronic devices.

Ion-Gel-Gated Graphene Optical Modulator with Hysteretic Behavior

We propose a graphene-based optical modulator and comprehensively investigate its photonic characteristics by electrically controlling the device with an ion-gel top-gate dielectric. The density of the electrically driven charge carriers in the ion-gel gate dielectric plays a key role in tuning the optical output power of the device. The charge density at the ion-gel-graphene interface is tuned electrically, and the chemical potential of graphene is then changed to control its light absorption strength. The optical behavior of the ion-gel gate dielectric exhibits a large hysteresis which originates from the inherent nature of the ionic gel and the graphene-ion-gel interface and a slow polarization response time of ions. The photonic device is applicable to both TE- and TM-polarized light waves, covering two entire optical communication bands, the O-band (1.26-1.36 μm) and the C-band (1.52-1.565 μm). The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretically simulated predictions. The temporal behavior of the ion-gel-graphene-integrated optical modulator reveals a long-term modulation state because of the relatively low mobility of the ions in the ion-gel solution and formation of the electric double layer in the graphene-ion-gel interface. Fast dynamic recovery is observed by applying an opposite voltage gate pulse. This study paves the way to the understanding of the operational principles and future applications of ion-gel-gated graphene optical devices in photonics.

Improving the electrical properties of lanthanum silicate films on ge metal oxide semiconductor capacitors by adopting interfacial barrier and capping layers.

The electrical properties of La-silicate films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on Ge substrates with different film configurations, such as various Si concentrations, Al2O3 interfacial passivation layers, and SiO2 capping layers, were examined. La-silicate thin films were deposited using alternating injections of the La[N{Si(CH3)3}2]3 precursor with O3 as the La and O precursors, respectively, at a substrate temperature of 310 °C. The Si concentration in the La-silicate films was further controlled by adding ALD cycles of SiO2. For comparison, La2O3 films were also grown using [La((i)PrCp)3] and O3 as the La precursor and oxygen source, respectively, at the identical substrate temperature. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) hysteresis decreased with an increasing Si concentration in the La-silicate films, although the films showed a slight increase in the capacitance equivalent oxide thickness. The adoption of Al2O3 at the interface as a passivation layer resulted in lower C-V hysteresis and a low leakage current density. The C-V hysteresis voltages of the La-silicate films with Al2O3 passivation and SiO2 capping layers was significantly decreased to ∼0.1 V, whereas the single layer La-silicate film showed a hysteresis voltage as large as ∼1.0 V.