van der Waals dielectrics for threshold engineering in two-dimensional field effect transistors.

Sen, Dipanjan; Ravichandran, Harikrishnan; Imam, Safdar; Ghosh, Subir; Mukhopadhyay, Krishnendu; Bashir, Md Yasir; Ie, Thomas S; Mazanek, Vlastimil et al. · Nat Commun · 2026

basic_science · Level V

Where this comes from

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are promising for next-generation field-effect transistors (FETs), but their integration into complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS) logic is hindered by improper threshold voltages ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>t</mi> <mi>h</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> ), leading to excessive power consumption. While past efforts have focused on improving gate electrostatics and near-ideal subthreshold swing ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mi>S</mi> <mi>S</mi></math> ), systematic <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>t</mi> <mi>h</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> engineering in 2D FETs remains unexplored. Here, we investigate high-κ van der Waals (vdW) dielectrics including metal oxyhalides such as LaOBr, BiOBr, and BiOCl, and bimetallic thiophosphates such as LiInP<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> (LIPS), LiInP<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>6</sub> (LIPSe) and CuInP<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> (CIPS), and demonstrate that bimetallic thiophosphates enable programmable and non-volatile <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>t</mi> <mi>h</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> tuning in both n-type monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> and p-type bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> FETs. Leveraging ion-mediated <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>t</mi> <mi>h</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> tuning, we realize 2D CMOS inverters with nearly three orders of magnitude reduction in static power while maintaining high switching speed. Combining experiments with industry-compatible SPICE modeling, we identify an optimal <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <msub><mrow><mi>V</mi></mrow> <mrow><mi>t</mi> <mi>h</mi></mrow> </msub> </math> window that minimizes power with negligible delay overhead, enabling built-in power gating and improved power-performance-area metrics without additional sleep transistors.