High-κ Dielectric (HfO 2 )/2D Semiconductor (HfSe 2 ) Gate Stack for Low-Power Steep-Switching Computing Devices.

Herein, a high-quality gate stack (native HfO 2 formed on 2D HfSe 2 ) fabricated via plasma oxidation is reported, realizing an atomically sharp interface with a suppressed interface trap density (D it ≈ 5 × 10 10 cm -2 eV -1 ). The chemically converted HfO 2 exhibits dielectric constant, κ ≈ 23, resulting in low gate leakage current (≈10 -3 A cm -2 ) at equivalent oxide thickness ≈0.5 nm. Density functional calculations indicate that the atomistic mechanism for achieving a high-quality interface is the possibility of O atoms replacing the Se atoms of the interfacial HfSe 2 layer without a substitution energy barrier, allowing layer-by-layer oxidation to proceed. The field-effect-transistor-fabricated HfO 2 /HfSe 2 gate stack demonstrates an almost ideal subthreshold slope (SS) of ≈61 mV dec -1 (over four orders of I DS ) at room temperature (300 K), along with a high I on /I off ratio of ≈10 8 and a small hysteresis of ≈10 mV. Furthermore, by utilizing a device architecture with separately controlled HfO 2 /HfSe 2 gate stack and channel structures, an impact ionization field-effect transistor is fabricated that exhibits n-type steep-switching characteristics with a SS value of 3.43 mV dec -1 at room temperature, overcoming the Boltzmann limit. These results provide a significant step toward the realization of post-Si semiconducting devices for future energy-efficient data-centric computing electronics.