Electronic Impact of High-Energy Metal Deposition on Ultrathin Oxide Semiconductors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39836826.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05333 and PMC identifier 11849035.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
High-energy metal deposition significantly impacts the performance and reliability of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors and nanodevices. This study investigates the localized annealing effect in atomically thin In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> induced during high-energy metal deposition. The localized heating effect alters the electronic performance of In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> devices, especially in shorter channel devices, where heat dissipation is further constrained. This effect creates a conductivity gradient along the In<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> device with higher conductivity near the metal contact, as observed by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). This gradient leads to a pronounced threshold voltage (<i>V</i><sub>th</sub>) shift as the channel length (<i>L</i><sub>ch</sub>) decreases, resembling a short-channel effect but one driven by thermal mechanisms rather than conventional mechanisms. Furthermore, metals with higher latent heats can exacerbate these effects. We also show that reversing the deposition sequence and postdeposition oxygen annealing effectively suppress <i>V</i><sub>th</sub> shifts across different <i>L</i><sub>ch</sub>. This work offers key insights into controlling thermal effects during fabrication to improve ultrathin oxide transistor performance.