Selective Defect Engineering for Gate-Controlled yet Contact-Transparent Bi₂O₂Se Transistors.

Abstract

Two-dimensional semiconductors offer a pathway toward ultrascaled electronics, yet achieving strong electrostatic gate control without sacrificing low-resistance contacts remains a fundamental challenge. Here, we report a selective defect-engineering strategy that addresses this gate-contact trade-off in Bi₂O₂Se transistors. Low-temperature nitrogen incorporation passivates selenium vacancies through robust N-Bi bonding, suppressing intrinsic self-doping while preserving the intrinsic band dispersion without introducing midgap states. Density functional theory and scanning tunnelling spectroscopy reveal that nitrogen provides acceptor-like compensation by neutralizing vacancy-induced donor states, rather than through conventional substitutional doping. As a result, the Fermi level shifts toward midgap, enabling precise carrier-density modulation while maintaining band-like transport. By spatially confining nitrogen incorporation to the channel region, Bi₂O₂Se field-effect transistors are converted from depletion to enhancement mode, achieving high electron mobility and on/off ratios up to 10⁹ while preserving ohmic, contact-transparent injection. This selective defect-engineering approach decouples channel electrostatics from contact properties and provides a potentially scalable, thermally benign route toward gate-controllable, contact-transparent two-dimensional transistors compatible with integrated logic architectures.