Understanding Ambipolar Transport in MoS2Field Effect Transistors: the Substrate is the Key.

2D materials offer a pathway for further scaling of CMOS technology. However, for this to become a reality, both n-MOS and p-MOS should be realized, ideally with the same (standard) material. In the specific case of MoS2FETs, ambipolar transport is seldom reported, primarily due to the phenomenon of Fermi level pinning. In this study we identify the possible sources of Fermi level pinning in MoS2FETs and resolve them individually. A novel contact transfer technique is used to transfer contacts on top of MoS2flake devices that results in a significant increase in the hole branch of the transfer characteristics as compared to conventionally fabricated contacts. We hypothesize that the pinning not only comes from the contact-MoS2interface, but also from the MoS2-substrate interface. We confirm this by shifting to an hBN substrate which leads to a 10 fold increase in the hole current compared to the SiO2substrate. Furthermore, we analyse MoS2FETs of different channel thickness on three different substrates, SiO2, hBN and Al2O3, by correlating the p-branch ION/IOFFto the position of oxide defect band in these substrates. Fermi level pinning from the oxide is reduced in the case of Al2O3which enables us to observe ambipolar transport in a bilayer MoS2FET. These results highlight that MoS2is indeed an ambipolar material, and the absence of ambipolar transport in MoS2FETs is strongly correlated to its dielectric environment and processing conditions.