Topological Insulator Bi2Se3 Nanowire High Performance Field-Effect Transistors

Topological insulators are unique electronic materials with insulating interiors and robust metallic surfaces. Device applications exploiting their remarkable properties have so far been hampered by the difficulty to electrically tune the Fermi levels of both bulk and thin film samples. Here we show...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inScientific reports Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 1757
Main Authors Zhu, Hao, Richter, Curt A., Zhao, Erhai, Bonevich, John E., Kimes, William A., Jang, Hyuk-Jae, Yuan, Hui, Li, Haitao, Arab, Abbas, Kirillov, Oleg, Maslar, James E., Ioannou, Dimitris E., Li, Qiliang
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Nature Publishing Group 30.04.2013
Subjects
Conduction
Electron transport
Nanotechnology
Nanowires
Transistors
Voltage
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Summary:Topological insulators are unique electronic materials with insulating interiors and robust metallic surfaces. Device applications exploiting their remarkable properties have so far been hampered by the difficulty to electrically tune the Fermi levels of both bulk and thin film samples. Here we show experimentally that single-crystal nanowires of the topological insulator Bi2 Se3 can be used as the conduction channel in high-performance field effect transistor (FET), a basic circuit building block. Its current-voltage characteristics are superior to many of those reported for semiconductor nanowire transistors, including sharp turn-on, nearly zero cutoff current, very large On/Off current ratio, and well-saturated output current. The metallic electron transport at the surface with good FET effective mobility can be effectively separated from the conduction of bulk Bi2 Se3 and adjusted by field effect at a small gate voltage. This opens up a suite of potential applications in nanoelectronics and spintronics.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep01757