Patent Application: US-201213976757-A

Abstract:
semiconductor device comprising a source electrode , a drain electrode and a semiconducting layer consisting of a single or double 2 - dimensional layer made from one of the following materials : mos 2 , mose 2 , ws 2 , wse 2 , mote 2 or wte 2 .

Description:
the invention will be better understood below , in particular with the use of some non - limiting examples . the semiconductor device according to the invention may be manufactured by one of the following processes : a ) liquid phase exfoliation — this is the method developed by the oxford - trinity college collaboration ( coleman et al ., two - dimensional nanosheets produced by liquid exfoliation of layered materials , science 331 , 568 ( 2011 ). it consists of suspending particles of the material in organic solvents , agitating using solvents using ultrasound and purifying using centrifugation . these solvents can then be sprayed over surfaces or deposited on substrates using the langmuir - blodgett technique ( divigalpitiya et al ., thin oriented films of molybdenum disulphide , thin solid films 186 , 177 ( 1990 )). this may be the method of choice for applications in cheap , bendable electronics . b ) molecular beam epitaxy — elements ( mo and se for example ) are simultaneously evaporated in ultrahigh vacuum onto heated substrates . high quality , continuous films can be grown on large areas ( cm × cm or larger ). ( ueno et al ., epitaxial - growth of transition - metal dichalcogenides on cleaved faces of mica , journal of vacuum science & amp ; technology a 8 , 68 ( 1990 )). c ) chemical vapour transport — either elements ( mo , se , te , s , w ) or powders ( for example mose 2 ) are sublimated in closed ampoules with a warmer and a colder region . crystals deposit and grow in the colder part of the tube ( enomoto et al ., van der waals growth of thin tas 2 on layered substrates by chemical vapor transport technique , jpn . j . appl . phys . 43 , l123 ( 2004 )). d ) chemical vapour deposition — mixture of gasses flow past a heated catalyst surface . a chemical reaction occurs on the surface , resulting in film growth ( boscher et al ., atmospheric pressure cvd of molybdenum diselenide films on glass , chemical vapor deposition 12 , 692 ( 2006 )). in addition to the basic structure shown on fig1 a the semiconductor device according to the present invention may be made according to other geometries . some non - limitative examples of such geometries are presented in fig2 a to 2i wherein : fig2 a shows a top gate electrode which extends over the other electrodes . the device of fig2 b has no top gate electrode or top oxide . it can be used as a chemical , biological or ph sensor . in the device of fig2 c the top gate electrode is embedded in gate oxide . the device of fig2 d comprises two transistors connected in series ( logic inverter ). the device of fig2 e comprises three transistors connected in series ( logic nor ). in the device of fig2 f the gate oxide is replaced with a ferroelectric material ( non - volatile memory ). the device of fig2 g shows an additional buried gate electrode , a better electrostatic control and tenability of the band gap in the case where two 2 - dimensional layers are used as a semiconducting material . the device of fig2 h contains a buried gate electrode , has no top gate or top oxide and can therefore be used as a sensor . the device of fig2 i has two transistors in series and a junction with n and p - type doping . it can be used as led . fig3 shows the structure and afm imaging of monolayer mos 2 . a three - dimensional representation of the structure of mos2 . single layers , 6 . 5 å thick can be extracted using scotch - tape based micromechanical cleavage . b atomic force microscope image of a single layer of mos2 deposited on si substrate with a 270 nm thick oxide layer . c cross - section plot along the red line in part b . fig4 shows the fabrication of mos 2 monolayer transistors . a optical image of a single layer of mos 2 with a thickness of 6 . 5 å deposited on top of a si substrate with a 270 nm thick sio 2 layer . b optical image of a device based on the flake shown on figure a . the device consists of two field effect transistors connected in series and defined by three au leads that serve as source and drain electrodes for the two transistors . monolayer mos 2 is covered by 30 nm of ald deposited hfo 2 that acts both as a gate dielectric and a mobility booster . the scale bars in a and b are 10 μm long . c three - dimensional schematic view of one of the transistors shown on figure b . fig5 shows characterization of mos 2 monolayer transistors . a cross - sectional view of the structure of monolayer mos 2 fet together with electrical connections used to characterize the device . single layer of mos 2 6 . 5 å thick is deposited on degenerately doped si substrate with 270 nm thick sio 2 . the substrate acts a back gate . one of the gold electrodes acts as drain while the other , source electrode is grounded . the monolayer is separated from the top gate by 30 nm of ald - grown hfo 2 . the top gate width for device is 4 μm while the top gate length , source - gate and gate - drain spacing is 500 nm . b room temperature transfer characteristic for the fet with 10 mv applied bias voltage v ds . back gate voltage v bg is applied to the substrate and the top gate is disconnected . the inset shows an i ds - v ds curve acquired for v bg values of 0 . 1 and 5 v . fig6 shows local gate control of the mos 2 monolayer transistor . a i ds - v tg curve recorded for a bias voltages ranging from 10 mv to 500 mv . measurements are performed at room temperature with the back gate grounded . top gate width is 4 μm while the top gate length is 500 nm . the device can be completely turned off by changing the top gate bias from − 2 to − 4 v . for v ds = 10 mv , the i on / i off ratio is & gt ; 1 × 10 6 . for v ds = 500 mv , the i on / i off ratio is & gt ; 1 × 10 8 in the measured range while the subthreshold swing s = 74 mv / dec . top and bottom gate leakage is negligible ( fig . s 3 in supplementary materials ). inset shows i ds - v tg for values of v bg =− 10 ,− 5 , 0 , 5 and 10 v . b i ds - v ds curves recorded for different values of the top gate voltage v tg . the linear dependence of the current on bias voltage for small voltages indicates that the au contacts are ohmic . fig7 shows an integrated circuit based on single - layer mos 2 ( not to scale ). ( a ) single - layer mos 2 is deposited on top of a si chip covered with 270 nm thick sio 2 . the integrated circuit is composed of two transistors defined by a neighboring pair of leads and controlled by local gates with hfo 2 gate dielectric . ( b ) cross - sectional view of the structure of a monolayer mos 2 integrated circuit together with electrical connections used to characterize the device . one of the gold electrodes acts as drain while the other , source electrode is grounded . the monolayer is separated from the top gate by 30 nm of ald - grown hfo 2 . the top gate width for device is 4 . 7 μm , top gate length is 1 . 3 μm and lead spacing is 1 . 6 μm . the substrate can act as a back gate but is kept grounded during the measurement . fig8 shows electrical characterization of the integrated circuit based on monolayer mos 2 . ( a ) optical image of a monolayer mos 2 deposited on top of a si substrate with a 270 nm thick sio 2 layer . ( b ) integrated circuit based on the flake shown in ( a ). the device consists of three au electrical leads that can act as source , drain and output terminals and two local gates . the scale bars in ( a ) and ( b ) are 10 μm long . ( c ) drain - source current i ds through the mos 2 monolayer transistor on the left side of the integrated circuit shown on b , measured as a function of the top gate voltage v tg . the mos 2 transistor shows gating response typical of fets with n - type conducting channels . inset shows the drain - source current i ds as a function of back gate voltage v bg for drain - source voltage v ds values of 100 mv , 200 mv and 500 mv . ( d ) drain - source current i ds as a function of drain - source voltage for different values of v tg . the current through the device changes by over six orders of magnitude when the top gate voltage is swept in the − 4v to + 4v range . fig9 shows characteristics of the integrated mos 2 inverter . ( a ) output voltage as a function of the input voltage . schematic drawing of the electronic circuit and the truth table for the not logic operation ( inset ). ( b ) the dependence of the inverter gain ( negative value of dv out / dv t .) on the input voltage . the maximal voltage gain above 4 indicates that our inverter is suitable for integration in arrays of logic devices . fig1 shows the demonstration of a nor - gate logic circuit based on single - layer mos 2 transistors . the circuit is formed by connecting two monolayer mos 2 transistors in parallel and using an external 1 mohm resistor as a load ( left inset ). the output voltage v out is shown for four different combinations on input states ( 1 , 0 ), ( 1 , 1 ), ( 0 , 1 ) and ( 0 , 0 ). the output is at the high state only if both inputs are in the low state ( truth table in the inset ). all logic operations can be expressed as combinations of nor operations . two detailed non - limitative examples according to the present invention are presented in the following chapters . two - dimensional materials are attractive for use in next - generation nanoelectronic devices because , compared to one - dimensional materials , it is relatively easy to fabricate complex structures from them . the most widely studied two - dimensional material is graphene , 1 , 2 both because of its rich physics 3 - 5 and its high mobility . 6 however , pristine graphene does not have a band gap , which is required for many applications including transistors , 7 and engineering a graphene bandgap increases fabrication complexity and either reduces mobilities to the level of strained silicon films 8 - 13 or requires high voltages . 14 , 15 while single layers of mos 2 have a large intrinsic bandgap of 1 . 8 ev 16 , previously reported mobilities in the 0 . 5 - 3 cm 2 / vs range 17 are too low for practical devices . here we use a halfnium oxide gate dielectric to demonstrate a room - temperature single - layer mos 2 mobility of at least 200 cm 2 / vs , similar to that of graphene nanoribbons , and demonstrate transistors with room temperature current on / off ratios of 10 8 and ultralow stand - by power dissipation . because monolayer mos 2 has a direct bandgap 16 , 18 it can be used to construct inter - band tunnel fets 19 , which offer lower power consumption than classical transistors . monolayer mos 2 could also complement graphene in applications that require thin transparent semiconductors — for example in optoelectronics and energy harvesting . mos 2 is a typical example from the layered transition metal dichalcogenide family of materials . crystals of mos 2 are composed of vertically stacked , weakly interacting layers held together via van der waals interaction , fig3 a . single layers , 6 . 5 å thick ( fig3 b and 3 c ), can be extracted by means of scotch tape 17 , 23 or lithium - based intercalation . 24 , 25 large - area thin films can also be prepared using mos 2 suspensions . bulk mos 2 is semiconducting with an indirect band gap of 1 . 2 ev , 26 while single - layer mos 2 is a direct gap semiconductor 16 , 18 with a band gap of 1 . 8 ev . 16 mos 2 nanotubes 27 and nanowires 28 also show the influence of quantum - mechanical confinement in their electronic and optical properties . other features that could make mos 2 interesting for nanoelectronic applications include the absence of dangling bonds and thermal stability up to 1100 ° c . single - layer mos 2 could also be interesting as a semiconducting analogue of graphene that does not have a band gap in its pristine form . band gaps up to 400 mev have been introduced by quantum mechanical confinement in patterned 20 or exfoliated graphene nanoribbons 9 but always at the price of significant mobility reduction ( 200 cm 2 / vs for a 150 mev band gap ), 9 , 10 loss of coherence 11 or increased off - state currents due to edge roughness . 12 band gaps were also induced by applying a perpendicular electric field in bilayer graphene , 14 , 21 but the highest reported optical gap here is 250 mev , requiring application of voltage exceeding 100v . 14 this makes it very difficult to build logic circuits based on graphene that would operate at room temperature with low stand - by power dissipation . in fact , any potential replacement of silicon in cmos - like digital logic devices is desired to have a current on / off ratio 7 i on / i off between 10 4 and 10 7 and a band gap exceeding 400 mev . 22 the starting point for the fabrication of our transistors is scotch - tape based micromechanical exfoliation 1 , 17 of single - layer mos 2 . mos 2 monolayers are transferred to degenerately doped si substrates covered with 270 nm thick sio 2 , fig4 a . we have previously found that this oxide thickness is optimal for optical detection of single - layer mos 2 and established the correlation between contrast and thickness as measured by atomic force microscopy . 29 electrical contacts are first fabricated using electron beam lithography followed by deposition of 50 nm thick au electrodes . the device is then annealed at 200 ° c . in order to remove resist residue 30 and decrease contact resistance ( please refer to the supplementary material for more details ). at this point our single - layer devices show typical mobility in the 0 . 1 - 10 cm 2 v / s range , similar to previously reported values for single - layers 17 and thin crystals containing more than 10 layers of mos 2 . 31 this is lower than the previously reported phonon - scattering limited room temperature mobility in the 200 - 500 cm 2 / vs range for bulk mos 2 . 32 encouraged by recent theoretical predictions of mobility improvement by dielectric screening 33 and its successful application to graphene , 34 we proceed by atomic layer deposition of 30 nm hfo 2 as a high - x gate dielectric for the local top gate and mobility booster in order to realize the full potential of single - layer mos 2 . we chose hfo 2 because of its high dielectric constant of 25 , band gap of 5 . 7 ev and the fact that it is commonly used as a gate dielectric both by the research community and major microprocessor manufacturers . 35 , 36 the resulting structure , composed of two field - effect transistors connected in series is shown on fig4 b with the schematic depiction of the device shown on fig4 c . the top gate width for our device is 4 μm while the top gate length , source - gate and gate - drain spacing is 500 nm . we perform electrical characterization of our device at room temperature using a semiconductor parameter analyzer and shielded probe station with voltage sources connected in the configuration depicted on fig5 a . we first characterize our mos 2 transistors with 6 . 5 å thick conductive channels by applying a drain - source bias v ds to a pair of au electrodes and gate voltage v bg to the degenerately doped si substrate while leaving the top gate electrically floating . 37 the gating characteristics of the left - most transistor shown on fig4 b is presented on fig5 b and is typical of fet devices with an n - type channel . we concentrate on this device in the remainder of the manuscript . characterization details for other devices and fabrication batches are available in the supplementary material . all the mos 2 transistors we have fabricated , regardless of the number of layers or contacting material , show behavior typical of fet devices with n - type channels . repeated v bg sweeps on the same device do not show significant variation , while keeping all the voltages constant results in constant i ds , indicating that the top gate is not likely to accumulate charge during measurements . we estimate that a constant surface charge n ≈ 4 . 6 × 10 12 cm − 2 trapped on the top gate would shift the threshold voltage by ˜ 1v but not change the slope of the i ds - v bg curve on fig5 b used for estimating channel mobility . the source current versus source bias characteristics , fig5 b inset , is linear in the ± 50 mv range of voltages , indicating that our au contacts are ohmic . the on - resistance of our transistor is 27 kω for v ds = 10 mv and v bg = 10 v with the gate width of 4 μm and bottom gate length of 1 . 5 μm . we have noticed that the device resistance can increase during storage at ambient conditions for a period of two months . this could be attributed to absorption of oxygen and / or water from the environment and could be mitigated by device encapsulation . from the data presented on fig5 b we can extract the low - field field effect mobility of ˜ 217 cm 2 / vs using the expression μ =[ di ds / dv bs ]×[ ll ( wc i v ds )] where l = 1 . 5 μm is the channel length , w = 4 μm channel width and c i = 1 . 3 × 10 − 4 f / m 2 is the capacitance between the channel and the back gate per unit area ( c i = ε 0 ε r / d ; ε r = 3 . 9 ; d = 270 nm ). note that this value represents the lower limit because of contact resistance . as our device displays ohmic i ds - v ds behavior , fig5 b inset , we exclude the possibility that our field - effect behavior is dominated by schottky barriers at the contacts . even though the room - temperature value of phonon - scattering limited 32 mobility for bulk mos 2 is in the 200 - 500 cm 2 / vs range , exfoliation of single layers onto sio 2 results in a decrease of mobility down to the 0 . 1 - 10 cm 2 v / s range . the improvement of the mobility with the deposition of a high - κ dielectric could be due to suppression of coulomb scattering due to the high - κ dielectric environment 33 and modification of phonon dispersion 38 in mos 2 monolayers . extensive future theoretical work including calculation of phonon dispersion relation in single - layer mos 2 , calculation of scattering rates on phonons and charge impurities would be needed to provide a complete picture . before we compare the value of mobility in our case with the mobility of graphene or thin - film si we should note that semiconductors such as carbon nanotubes or graphene nanoribbons mostly follow the general trend of decreasing mobility with increasing band gap . 22 even though graphene has a high room temperature mobility of 120000 cm 2 / vs , this value relates to large - area , gapless graphene . 6 on the other hand , measurements on 10 nm wide graphene nanoribbons with eg ˜ 400 mv indicate mobility lower than 200 cm 2 / vs , 9 in good agreement with theoretical models that predict decreased mobility in small - width gnr due to electron - phonon scattering . 13 this is comparable to mobility of 250 cm 2 / vs found in 2 nm thin strained si films . 42 our mos 2 monolayer has similar mobility but higher band gap than graphene nanoribbons 9 and a smaller thickness than thinnest si films fabricated to date . 42 one of the crucial requirements for building integrated circuits based on single layers of mos 2 is the ability to control charge density in a local manner , independently of a global back gate . we can do this by applying a voltage v tg to the top gate , separated from the monolayer mos 2 by 30 nm of hfo 2 , fig5 a , while keeping the substrate grounded . the corresponding transfer characteristic is shown on fig6 a . for a bias of 10 mv we observe an on current of 150 na ( 37 na / μ ), current on / off ratio i on / i off & gt ; 10 6 for the ± 4 v range of v tg , an off state current that is smaller than 100 fa ( 25fa / μm ) and gate leakage lower than 2 pa / μm 2 . the observed current variation for different values of v tg indicates that the field - effect behavior of our transistor is dominated by the mos 2 channel and not the contacts . at the bias voltage v ds = 500 mv , the maximal measured on current is 10 μa ( 2 . 5 μa / μm ), with i on / i off higher than 10 8 for the ± 4 v range of v tg . the device transconductance defined as g m = di ds / dv tg at v ds = 500 mv is ˜ 4 μs ( 1 μs / μm ), similar to values obtained for high performance cds nanoribbon array transistors ( 2 . 5 μs / μm at v ds = 1 v ). 43 high - performance top - gated graphene transistors can have normalized transconductane values as high as 1 . 27 ms / μm . 44 the large degree of current control in our device is also clearly illustrated on fig6 b . where we plot the drain - source current versus drain - source bias for different values of voltage applied to the local gate . from the channel current dependence on top - gate voltage , we deduce a subthreshold slope for the transition between the on and off states of 74 mv / dec for a bias v ds = 500 mv . being a direct gap semiconductor , single layers of mos 2 offer the intriguing possibility for the realization of an interband tunnel fets which is characterized by turn - on sharper than the theoretical limit of 60 mv / dec for classical transistors and consequently smaller power dissipation . this feat has remained difficult in case of silicon , an indirect gap semiconductor , because interband transitions there require phonons and recombination centers . to summarize , we have realized a field - effect transistor with a single , two - dimensional layer of a semiconductor mos 2 as a conductive channel and hafnium dioxide as a gate insulator . the conductive channel in our device is only 6 . 5 å thick . our transistor exhibits a room temperature current on / off ratio exceeding 1 × 10 8 and mobility of ˜ 200 cm 2 / vs , comparable to mobility achieved in thin silicon films 42 or graphene nanoribbons . 9 such a transistor could form the backbone of future electronics based on layered materials where mos 2 transistors could be fabricated on insulating boron - nitride substrates . 40 our results provide an important step towards the realization of electronics and low stand - by power integrated circuits based on two - dimensional materials . being a thin , transparent semiconducting material , mos 2 monolayers also present a wealth of new opportunities in areas that include mesoscopic physics , optoelectronics and energy harvesting . with the possibility to fabricate large areas circuits using solution - based processing , our finding could be important for producing electronic devices that could combine the ease of processing associated with organic conductors with performance figures commonly associated with si - based electronics . single layers of mos 2 are exfoliated from commercially available crystals of molybdenite ( spi supplies brand moly disulfide ) using the scotch - tape micromechanical cleavage technique method pioneered for the production of graphene . 1 afm imaging is performed using the asylum research cypher afm . after au contact deposition , devices are annealed in 100 sccm of ar and 10 sccm h 2 flow at 200 c for 2 h . 30 ald is performed in a home - built reactor using a reaction of h 2 o with tetrakis ( dimethylamido ) hafnium ( sigma aldrich ). electrical characterization is carried out using agilent e5270b parameter analyzer and a home - built shielded probe station with micromanipulated probes . 1 novoselov , k . s . et al . electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films . science 306 , 666 - 669 , ( 2004 ). 2 berger , c . et al . ultrathin epitaxial graphite : 2d electron gas properties and a route toward graphene - based nanoelectronics . j . phys . chem . b 108 , 19912 - 19916 , ( 2004 ). 3 novoselov , k . s . et al . two - dimensional gas of massless dirac fermions in graphene . nature 438 , 197 - 200 , ( 2005 ). 4 zhang , y ., tan , y .- w ., stormer , h . l . & amp ; kim , p . experimental observation of the quantum hall effect and berry &# 39 ; s phase in graphene . nature 438 , 201 - 204 , ( 2005 ). 5 du , x ., skachko , i ., duerr , f ., luican , a . & amp ; andrei , e . y . fractional quantum hall effect and insulating phase of dirac electrons in graphene . nature 462 , 192 - 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gap engineering of graphene nanoribbons . phys . rev . lett . 98 , 206805 , ( 2007 ). 21 xia , f ., farmer , d . b ., lin , y .- m . & amp ; avouris , p . graphene field - effect transistors with high on / off current ratio and large transport band gap at room temperature . nano lett . 10 , 715 - 718 , ( 2010 ). 22 schwierz , f . graphene transistors . nature nanotech . 5 , 487 - 496 , ( 2010 ). 23 frindt , r . f . single crystals of mos2 several molecular layers thick . j . app . phys . 37 , 1928 - 1929 , ( 1966 ). 24 joensen , p ., frindt , r . f . & amp ; morrison , s . r . single - layer mos2 . mat . res . bull . 21 , 457 - 461 , ( 1986 ). 25 schumacher , a ., scandella , l ., kruse , n . & amp ; prins , r . single - layer mos2 on mica : studies by means of scanning force microscopy . surf . sci . lett . 289 , l595 - l598 , ( 1993 ). 26 kam , k . k . & amp ; parkinson , b . a . detailed photocurrent spectroscopy of the semiconducting group vib transition metal dichalcogenides . j . phys . chem . 86 , 463 - 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755 , ( 1967 ). 33 debdeep , j . & amp ; aniruddha , k . enhancement of carrier mobility in semiconductor nanostructures by dielectric engineering . phys . rev . lett . 98 , 136805 , ( 2007 ). 34 chen , f ., xia , j ., ferry , d . k . & amp ; tao , n . dielectric screening enhanced performance in graphene fet . nano lett . 9 , 2571 - 2574 , ( 2009 ). 35 bohr , m . t ., chau , r . s ., ghani , t . & amp ; mistry , k . the high - k solution . ieee spectrum 44 , 29 - 35 , ( october 2007 ). 36 mistry , k . et al . a 45 nm logic technology with high - k + metal gate transistors , strained silicon , 9 cu interconnect layers , 193 nm dry patterning , and 100 % pb - free packaging . tech . dig . iedm , 247 - 250 , ( ieee , 2007 ). 37 lemme , m . c . a graphene field - effect device . ieee el . dev . lett . 28 , 282 , ( 2007 ). 38 fonoberov , v . a . & amp ; balandin , a . a . giant enhancement of the carrier mobility in silicon nanowires with diamond coating . nano lett . 6 , 2442 - 2446 , ( 2006 ). 39 bolotin , k . i . ultrahigh electron mobility in suspended graphene . solid state commun . 146 , 351 - 355 , ( 2008 ). 40 dean , c . r . et al . boron nitride substrates for high - quality graphene electronics . nature nanotech . 5 , 722 - 726 , ( 2010 ). 41 moser , j ., barreiro , a . & amp ; bachtold , a . current - induced cleaning of graphene . appl . phys . lett . 91 , 163513 , ( 2007 ). 42 gomez , l ., aberg , i . & amp ; hoyt , j . l . electron transport in strained - silicon directly on insulator ultrathin - body n - mosfets with body thickness ranging from 2 to 25 nm . el . dev . lett ., ieee 28 , 285 - 287 , ( 2007 ). 43 duan , x . et al . high - performance thin - film transistors using semiconductor nanowires and nanoribbons . nature 425 , 274 , ( 2003 ). 44 liao , l . et al . high - speed graphene transistors with a self - aligned nanowire gate . nature 467 , 305 - 308 , ( 2010 ). integrated circuits , inverters and logic operations based on a single 2 - dimensional layer of mos 2 logic circuits and the ability to amplify electrical signals form the functional back - bone of electronics along with the possibility to integrate multiple elements on the same chip . here , we demonstrate that single - layer mos 2 , a two - dimensional semiconductor with a direct band gap of 1 . 8 ev ( ref 13 ), has the capability to amplify signals and perform basic logic operations in simple integrated circuits composed of two mos 2 transistors . 3 our integrated circuit is composed of two n - type transistors realized on the same two - dimensional crystal of monolayer mos 2 , as schematically depicted on fig7 ( a ) and ( b ). single - layer mos 2 is a typical two - dimensional semiconductor from the layered transition metal dichalcogenide family . single layers , 6 . 5 å thick , can be extracted from bulk crystals using the micromechanical cleavage technique commonly associated with the production of graphene , 1 , 14 lithium - based intercalation 15 - 16 or liquid phase exfoliation 17 and used as ready - made blocks for electronics . 3 decreasing the number of layers in mesoscopic mos 2 structures leads to a transformation from an indirect band gap semiconductor with a band gap of 1 . 2 ev ( ref 18 ) into a direct gap semiconductor , 13 . 19 - 21 with a band gap of 1 . 8 ev ( ref 13 ) due to quantum confinement . 21 being an ultrathin direct gap semiconductor , single - layer mos 2 is very interesting as a material complementary to graphene which does not have a band gap in its pristine form . this makes it very difficult to fabricate logic circuits 22 - 23 or amplifiers 24 that would operate at room temperature with a voltage gain & gt ; 1 which is necessary for incorporating such structures in electronic circuits . the presence of band - gap in single - layer mos 2 on the other hand allows the realization of field - effect transistors with room - temperature on / off ratios that can exceed 10 8 ( ref . 3 ) which makes them interesting for building logic devices with low power dissipation . recent simulations also predict that short channel single - layer mos 2 devices could have higher on - current density than those based on si , 25 26 current on / off ratio higher than 10 10 , high degree of immunity to short channel effects 2 , 27 and abrupt switching . 26 all these properties show that mos 2 could be an interesting material for future applications in nanoelectronics . we begin our integrated circuit fabrication by exfoliating single - layer mos 2 , fig8 ( b ), from bulk crystals using scotch - tape based micromechanical exfoliation , 1 , 4 commonly used for the production of graphene . monolayers of mos 2 are deposited on degenerately doped si substrates covered with 270 nm thick sio 2 , resulting in optimal contrast for optical detection of single - layers . 28 three electrical leads are first fabricated using standard electron - beam lithography , followed by deposition of 90 nm thick au electrodes and annealing in ar / h 2 mixture 29 in order to remove resist residue and decrease contact resistance . the device is then covered by atomic layer deposition of 30 nm hfo 2 , a high - κ material commonly used as a gate dielectric . 30 - 31 finally , local top gates are deposited in the final round of e - beam lithography and metal deposition resulting in an integrated circuit such as the one shown on fig8 ( b ), composed of two single - layer transistors connected in series . the channel width of the transistors in our integrated circuit is 4 . 2 μm , lead spacing is 1 . 6 μm and top gate length is 1 . 3 μm . both transistors in our integrated circuit can be independently controlled by applying a voltage v tg to the corresponding top gate which is one of the crucial requirements for constructing integrated circuits composed of multiple transistors realized on the same substrate . we characterize both transistors in our integrated circuit at room temperature by connecting a pair of neighboring leads to the source and ground terminals of a semiconductor parameter analyzer and a voltage v tg to the corresponding top gate . the substrate is grounded throughout the measurements . the transfer characteristic for the transistor on the right side of the integrated circuit is shown on fig8 ( c ), and is typical of n - type field - effect transistors . by changing the top gate voltage v tg from − 4v to + 4v we can modify the current through the device over several orders of magnitude thanks to the high current on / off ratio of our transistor , higher than 10 6 in this range of top - gate voltage v tg . the on - resistance is 24 kω for v ds = 100 mv and v tg = 4 v . the linear and symmetric i ds vs v ds characteristics shown on fig8 ( d ) indicates that the contacts are ohmic . from back - gating characteristics , shown in the inset of fig8 ( c ), we estimate the two - contact low - field field effect mobility of ˜ 320 cm 2 / vs . at the bias voltage v ds = 500 mv , the maximal measured on current is 22 μa ( 4 . 6 μa / μm ), with i on / i off higher than 10 6 for the ± 4 v range of v tg and an i off ˜ 400 μa / μm . the device transconductance defined as g m = di ds / dv tg is 12 μs ( 2 . 6 μs / μm ) for v ds = 500 mv and is comparable to cds nanoribbon array transistors ( 2 . 5 μs / μm at v ds = 1 v ). 32 high - performance top - gated graphene transistors can have normalized transconductance values 33 as high as 1 . 27 ms / μm while carbon nanotubes can reach transconductance of 2 . 3 ms / μm . 34 we expect that by lowering the channel length will reduce the number of scattering centers and increase the on current in mos 2 - based transistors . theoretical models predict that mos 2 transistors with a gate length of 15 nm would operate in the ballistic regime 25 - 26 with a maximum on current as high as 1 . 6 ma / μm and a transconductance of 4 ms / um , both for v g = 0 . 6 v and a bias v ds = 0 . 5 v . 26 the efficient channel switching for small voltages exhibited by our device is also clearly illustrated on fig . ( d ) where we show the source - drain current i ds dependence on source - drain voltage v ds for different values of top gate voltage v tg . this large degree of control at room - temperature is necessary for realizing logic operations with large voltage gain . for development of logic circuits based on new materials , a voltage gain & gt ; 1 is necessary so that the output of one logic gate could be used to drive the input of the next gate without the need for signal restoration . we proceed by demonstrating that our single - layer mos 2 integrated circuit can operate as the most basic logic gate : a logic inverter , capable of converting a logical 0 ( low input voltage ) into logical 1 ( high output voltage ). we connect the middle lead to one of the local gates in a configuration depicted in the inset of fig9 ( a ), commonly used in logic circuits based on only one type ( n or p ) of transistors . in this configuration , the “ lower ” transistor acts as a switch while the “ upper ” one acts as an active load . input voltage v in is applied to the local gate of the switch transistor while the supply voltage v dd = 2v is applied to the drain electrode of the load transistor . the output voltage and transfer characteristic of the inverter as a function of the input voltage v in is shown on fig9 ( a ). for input voltages corresponding to logic 0 , the switch transistor has a higher resistance than the load transistor and is effectively turned off . this results in a constant voltage at the output terminal which is close to the supply voltage of v dd = 2v applied to the load drain electrode . by increasing the input voltage above − 1v , the lower fet becomes more conductive and the output voltage v out is now in the low range . in the input voltage range of ± 0 . 3 v , the output of the inverter is changing faster than the input , indicating that our device is capable of amplifying signals . the voltage gain defined as the negative of dv out / dv in and plotted on fig9 ( b ) is higher than 4 . for successful implementation of digital logic in electronic circuits based on any new nanomaterial , a voltage gain & gt ; 1 is needed so that the output of one inverter could drive the input of the next inverter in the cascade . our inverter has a voltage gain higher than 4 and is therefore suitable for integration in arrays of logic gates . this could involve level shifters because the input and output logic levels are not the same . increasing the threshold voltage of mos 2 transistors using for example substrate functionalization could also bring input and output voltages to the same level . we note that to the best of our knowledge the maximal voltage gain for graphene - based inverters 22 demonstrated so far is 2 - 7 but at the temperature of 80k , 23 , 35 due to the low bandgap (& lt ; 100 mev ) in bilayer graphene which prohibits the use of such devices at room temperature . our monolayer mos 2 transistors can also be used to perform logic operations involving two operands . by connecting two transistors in parallel and using an external resistor as load , we can construct a nor gate , shown on the inset of fig1 , where we show the output voltage for all the possible input states of the nor gate . when either one or both of the transistors are in the “ on ” state ( corresponding to v in = 2v ), the output is ˜ 0v , corresponding to logical 0 . only when both transistors are in the “ off ” state , does the output become logical 1 ( v out ≈ v dd = 2v ). nor operation forms a functionally complete set of binary operations : every possibly logic operation ( and , or , nand etc .) can be realized using a network of nor gates . we have demonstrated here that single - layer mos 2 , a new two - dimensional semiconductor , can be used as the material basis for fabrication of integrated circuits and for performing logic operations with room - temperature characteristic suitable for integration . our work represents the critical first step in the implementation of digital logic in two - dimensional materials at room temperature . together with the possibility of large - scale liquid - based processing of mos 2 and related 2d materials , 17 our finding could open the way to using mos 2 for applications in flexible electronics . single - layer mos 2 also has advantages over conventional silicon : it is thinner than state of the art silicon films that are 2 nm thick 36 and has a smaller dielectric constant ( ε = 7 , ref . 37 ) than silicon ( ε = 11 . 9 ), implying that using single - layer mos 2 could reduce short channel effects 26 and result in smaller and less power - hungry transistors than those based on silicon technology . several difficulties however need to be solved before mos 2 could become a mainstream electronic material for the semiconductor industry . a method for large - scale growth of continuous monolayers of mos 2 or a similar 2d semiconductor will be needed to fabricate more complex integrated circuits with a large number of elements . single layers of mos 2 are exfoliated from commercially available crystals of molybdenite ( spi supplies brand moly disulfide ) using the scotch - tape micromechanical cleavage technique method pioneered for the production of graphene . afm imaging is performed using the asylum research cypher afm . after au contact deposition , devices are annealed in 100 sccm of ar and 10 sccm h 2 flow at 200 c for 2 h . 29 ald is performed in a commercially available system ( beneq ) using a reaction of h 2 o with tetrakis ( ethyl - methylamido ) hafnium . electrical characterization is carried out using national instruments daq cards and a home - built shielded probe station with micromanipulated probes . 1 . novoselov , k . s . ; 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