SnTe field effect transistors and the anomalous electrical response of structural phase transition

Journal Article · Mon Jul 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4887055· OSTI ID:22303960

Li, Haitao; Zhu, Hao; Yuan, Hui; Li, Qiliang ^[1]; You, Lin; Kopanski, Joseph J. ^[1]; Richter, Curt A. ^[2]; Zhao, Erhai ^[3]

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1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (United States)
2. Semiconductor and Dimensional Metrology Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899 (United States)
3. School of Physics, Astronomy, and Computational Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (United States)

SnTe is a conventional thermoelectric material and has been newly found to be a topological crystalline insulator. In this work, back-gate SnTe field-effect transistors have been fabricated and fully characterized. The devices exhibit n-type transistor behaviors with excellent current-voltage characteristics and large on/off ratio (>10{sup 6}). The device threshold voltage, conductance, mobility, and subthreshold swing have been studied and compared at different temperatures. It is found that the subthreshold swings as a function of temperature have an apparent response to the SnTe phase transition between cubic and rhombohedral structures at 110 K. The abnormal and rapid increase in subthreshold swing around the phase transition temperature may be due to the soft phonon/structure change which causes the large increase in SnTe dielectric constant. Such an interesting and remarkable electrical response to phase transition at different temperatures makes the small SnTe transistor attractive for various electronic devices.

• OSTI ID: 22303960
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 1; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
CARRIER MOBILITY
CURRENTS
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
N-TYPE CONDUCTORS
PERMITTIVITY
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHONONS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
THERMOELECTRIC MATERIALS
TIN TELLURIDES
TOPOLOGY
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
TRIGONAL LATTICES