Ultrafast van der Waals diode using graphene quantum capacitance and Fermi-level depinning.

Hong, Sungjae; Hong, Chang-Ui; Lee, Sol; Jang, Myeongjin; Jang, Chorom; Lee, Yangjin; Widiapradja, Livia Janice; Park, Sam et al. · Sci Adv · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Graphene, with superior electrical tunabilities, has arisen as a multifunctional insertion layer in vertically stacked devices. Although the role of graphene inserted in metal-semiconductor junctions has been well investigated in quasi-static charge transport regime, the implication of graphene insertion at ultrahigh frequencies has rarely been considered. Here, we demonstrate the diode operation of vertical Pt/n-MoSe<sub>2</sub>/graphene/Au assemblies at ~200-GHz cutoff frequency (f<sub>C</sub>). The electric charge modulation by the inserted graphene becomes essentially frozen above a few GHz frequencies due to graphene quantum capacitance-induced delay, so that the Ohmic graphene/MoSe<sub>2</sub> junction may be transformed to a pinning-free Schottky junction. Our diodes exhibit much lower total capacitance than devices without graphene insertion, deriving an order of magnitude higher f<sub>C</sub>, which clearly demonstrates the merit of graphene at high frequencies.