A native oxide high-κ gate dielectric for two-dimensional electronics

Silicon-based transistors are approaching their physical limits and thus new high-mobility semiconductors are sought to replace silicon in the microelectronics industry. Both bulk materials (such as silicon-germanium and III–V semiconductors) and low-dimensional nanomaterials (such as one-dimensional carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides) have been explored, but, unlike silicon, which uses silicon dioxide (SiO2) as its gate dielectric, these materials suffer from the absence of a high-quality native oxide as a dielectric counterpart. This can lead to compatibility problems in practical devices. Here, we show that an atomically thin gate dielectric of bismuth selenite (Bi2SeO5) can be conformally formed via layer-by-layer oxidization of an underlying high-mobility two-dimensional semiconductor, Bi2O2Se. Using this native oxide dielectric, high-performance Bi2O2Se field-effect transistors can be created, as well as inverter circuits that exhibit a large voltage gain (as high as 150). The high dielectric constant (~21) of Bi2SeO5 allows its equivalent oxide thickness to be reduced to 0.9 nm while maintaining a gate leakage lower than thermal SiO2. The Bi2SeO5 can also be selectively etched away by a wet chemical method that leaves the mobility of the underlying Bi2O2Se semiconductor almost unchanged.