Emergence of Quantum Tunneling in Ambipolar Black Phosphorus Multilayers without Heterojunctions

Yeeun Kim, Chulmin Kim, Soo Yeon Kim, Byung Chul Lee, Youkyung Seo, Hyeran Cho, Gyu Tae Kim, Min Kyu Joo

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    8 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Negative differential resistance (NDR) is an exotic quantum tunneling phenomenon that is exhibited in narrow p-n junctions with heavy doping concentrations. However, the presence of multiple heterojunctions in a conventional tunneling device often hampers the observance of NDR and a deep understanding of its origin, particularly in 2D van der Waals heterojunctions. Herein, the emergence of quantum tunneling at the charge neutrality point (VCNP) in ambipolar multilayered black phosphorus (BP) transistors without heterojunctions is reported. The nearly identical electron and hole carrier densities at VCNP in the presence of a drain bias (VD) result in a lateral p-i-n configuration inside the BP multilayers similar to that in a tunneling field-effect transistor. The variation of the local carrier density profile and tunneling barrier with VD at VCNP drives a sharp enhancement of the activation energy and local resistance, which consequently allows to observe band-to-band tunneling at up to 340 K. The enhancement of the local doping profile along the BP channel and the NDR behavior in the fabricated reconfigurable top-gate BP device with an h-BN top-dielectric provide further evidence for the origin of NDR in 2D ambipolar materials.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2110391
    JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
    Volume32
    Issue number13
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2022 Mar 23

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    Y.K. and C.K. contributed equally to this work. This study was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (NRF-2021R1A2C2013002 (G.-T.K.) and NRF-2019R1C1C1003467 and NRF-2019K2A9A1A06083674 (M.-K.J.)).

    Funding Information:
    Y.K. and C.K. contributed equally to this work. This study was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (NRF‐2021R1A2C2013002 (G.‐T.K.) and NRF‐2019R1C1C1003467 and NRF‐2019K2A9A1A06083674 (M.‐K.J.)).

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

    Keywords

    • ambipolar transport
    • black phosphorus
    • metal-insulator transitions
    • multilayers
    • quantum tunneling

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
    • Condensed Matter Physics
    • General Chemistry
    • General Materials Science
    • Electrochemistry
    • Biomaterials

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