skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Understanding Electric Double-Layer Gating Based on Ionic Liquids: from Nanoscale to Macroscale

Journal Article · · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

In electric double-layer transistors (EDLTs), it is well known that the EDL formed by ionic liquids (ILs) can induce an ultrahigh carrier density at the semiconductor surface, compared to solid dielectric. However, the mechanism of device performance is still not fully understood, especially at a molecular level. In this study, we evaluate the gating performance of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) transistor coupled with a series of imidazolium-based ILs, using an approach combining of molecular dynamics simulation and finite element modeling. Results reveal that the EDL with different ion structures could produce inhomogeneous electric fields at the solid–electrolyte interface, and the heterogeneity of electric field-induced charge distributions at semiconductor surface could reduce the electrical conductance of a-IGZO during gating process. Meanwhile, a resistance network analysis was adopted to bridge the nanoscopic data with the macroscopic transfer characteristics of IL-gated transistor, and showed that our theoretical results could well estimate the gating performance of practical devices. Finally, our findings could provide both new concepts and modeling techniques for IL-gated transistors.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1489566
Journal Information:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 49; ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (57)

Polymer Electrolyte Gate Dielectric Reveals Finite Windows of High Conductivity in Organic Thin Film Transistors at High Charge Carrier Densities journal April 2005
Electric-field-induced superconductivity in an insulator journal October 2008
Liquid-gated interface superconductivity on an atomically flat film journal November 2009
Discovery of superconductivity in KTaO3 by electrostatic carrier doping journal May 2011
Modulation of the Electrical Properties of VO 2 Nanobeams Using an Ionic Liquid as a Gating Medium journal May 2012
Collective bulk carrier delocalization driven by electrostatic surface charge accumulation journal July 2012
Suppression of Metal-Insulator Transition in VO2 by Electric Field-Induced Oxygen Vacancy Formation journal March 2013
Performance and Stability of Aerosol-Jet-Printed Electrolyte-Gated Transistors Based on Poly(3-hexylthiophene) journal July 2013
Electric-Field Control of the Metal-Insulator Transition in Ultrathin NdNiO3 Films journal October 2010
Tuning of the metal-insulator transition in electrolyte-gated NdNiO3 thin films journal October 2010
Phase Diagram of Electrostatically Doped SrTiO3 journal April 2011
Superconductor–insulator transition in La2 − xSr x CuO4 at the pair quantum resistance journal April 2011
High-Mobility ZnO Nanorod Field-Effect Transistors by Self-Alignment and Electrolyte-Gating journal February 2013
Improved Carrier Mobility in Few-Layer MoS 2 Field-Effect Transistors with Ionic-Liquid Gating journal April 2013
High Mobility WSe 2 p - and n - Type Field-Effect Transistors Contacted by Highly Doped Graphene for Low-Resistance Contacts journal May 2014
Electric field gating with ionic liquids journal January 2007
Sub-0.5 V Highly Stable Aqueous Salt Gated Metal Oxide Electronics journal August 2015
Ionic Liquid Activation of Amorphous Metal-Oxide Semiconductors for Flexible Transparent Electronic Devices journal February 2016
A comparative study of organic single-crystal transistors gated with various ionic-liquid electrolytes journal February 2009
Comparison of the Mobility-Carrier Density Relation in Polymer and Single-Crystal Organic Transistors Employing Vacuum and Liquid Gate Dielectrics journal June 2009
Gate Capacitance-Dependent Field-Effect Mobility in Solution-Processed Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistors journal April 2014
Electronic transport and device prospects of monolayer molybdenum disulphide grown by chemical vapour deposition journal January 2014
Ionic Liquid versus SiO 2 Gated a-IGZO Thin Film Transistors: A Direct Comparison journal January 2015
Differential Capacitance of the Electrical Double Layer in Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids:  Influence of Potential, Cation Size, and Temperature journal April 2008
Differential capacitance of the double layer at the electrode/ionic liquids interface journal January 2010
Effects of anion on the electric double layer of imidazolium-based ionic liquids on graphite electrode by molecular dynamics simulation journal December 2015
Effects of Alkyl Chain Length on Interfacial Structure and Differential Capacitance in Graphene Supercapacitors: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study journal September 2017
Electrolyte-Gated Transistors for Organic and Printed Electronics journal December 2012
Role of Electrical Double Layer Structure in Ionic Liquid Gated Devices journal November 2017
Carrier Localization on Surfaces of Organic Semiconductors Gated with Electrolytes journal July 2010
Role of Percolation in the Conductance of Electrolyte-Gated SrTiO 3 journal November 2012
Molecular Layering of Fluorinated Ionic Liquids at a Charged Sapphire (0001) Surface journal October 2008
Electrostatics at the nanoscale journal January 2011
Atomic-Scale Characterization of Oxide Thin Films Gated by Ionic Liquid journal September 2014
Self-Organization of Ions at the Interface between Graphene and Ionic Liquid DEME-TFSI journal September 2017
Origin of subgap states in amorphous In-Ga-Zn-O journal October 2013
Local coordination structure and electronic structure of the large electron mobility amorphous oxide semiconductor In-Ga-Zn-O: Experiment and ab initio calculations journal January 2007
Ionic liquids containing the tetrafluoroborate anion have the best performance and stability for electric double layer capacitor applications journal November 2006
Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors journal November 2004
Entransy—A physical quantity describing heat transfer ability journal July 2007
The thermal analysis on the stackable supercapacitor journal September 2013
Molecular Insights into the Potential and Temperature Dependences of the Differential Capacitance of a Room-Temperature Ionic Liquid at Graphite Electrodes journal October 2010
Molecular Insights into the Electric Double Layers of Ionic Liquids on Au(100) Electrodes journal July 2014
Solvate Ionic Liquids at Electrified Interfaces journal August 2018
Self-consistent molecular dynamics formulation for electric-field-mediated electrolyte transport through nanochannels journal July 2007
Complex Capacitance Scaling in Ionic Liquids-Filled Nanopores journal October 2011
Accelerating charging dynamics in subnanometre pores journal March 2014
Molecular Force Field for Ionic Liquids Composed of Triflate or Bistriflylimide Anions journal October 2004
UFF, a full periodic table force field for molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations journal December 1992
Investigating the Specificity of Peptide Adsorption on Gold Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations journal July 2009
A Computational Study of the Interfacial Structure and Capacitance of Graphene in [BMIM][PF 6 ] Ionic Liquid journal November 2012
Molecular Dynamic Simulations of Ionic Liquids at Graphite Surface journal December 2009
GROMACS 4:  Algorithms for Highly Efficient, Load-Balanced, and Scalable Molecular Simulation journal February 2008
LINCS: A linear constraint solver for molecular simulations journal September 1997
Characterization and comparison of hydrophilic and hydrophobic room temperature ionic liquids incorporating the imidazolium cation journal January 2001
Ionic liquid thermal stabilities: decomposition mechanisms and analysis tools journal January 2013
Comparison of Physicochemical Properties of New Ionic Liquids Based on Imidazolium, Quaternary Ammonium, and Guanidinium Cations journal October 2007

Cited By (1)


Similar Records

Ionic liquid versus SiO2 gated a-IGZO thin film transistors: A direct comparison
Journal Article · Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology · OSTI ID:1489566

Gate-Induced Metal–Insulator Transition in MoS2 by Solid Superionic Conductor LaF 3
Journal Article · Fri Mar 23 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:1489566

Role of Electrical Double Layer Structure in Ionic Liquid Gated Devices
Journal Article · Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces · OSTI ID:1489566