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Device engineering based on the tunable electronic properties of ternary transition metal dichalcogenides has recently gained widespread research interest. In this work, monolayer ternary telluride core/shell structures are synthesized using a one‐step chemical vapor deposition process with rapid cooling. The core region is the tellurium‐rich WSe_2−2xTe_2xalloy, while the shell is the tellurium‐poor WSe_2−2yTe_2yalloy. The bandgap of the material is ≈1.45 eV in the core region and ≈1.57 eV in the shell region. The lateral gradient of the bandgap across the monolayer heterostructure allows for the fabrication of heterogeneous transistors and photodetectors. The difference in work function between the core and shell regions leads to a built‐in electric field at the heterojunction. As a result, heterogeneous transistors demonstrate a unidirectional conduction and strong photovoltaic effect. The bandgap gradient and high mobility of the ternary telluride core/shell structures provide a unique material platform for novel electronic and photonic devices.

 

Resonant tunneling diodes with negative differential resistance (NDR) have attracted significant attention due to their unique quantum resonant tunneling phenomena and potential applications in terahertz emission/detection and high‐density logic/memory. In this paper, resonant tunneling devices, where the carriers tunnel through a hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) barrier sandwiched by two black phosphorus (BP) layers, are explored. The resonance occurs when the energy bands of the two black phosphorus layers are aligned. The conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) measurements reveal prominent NDR peaks with large peak‐to‐valley ratios at room temperature. It is found that the positions of the NDR peaks are very sensitive to the amplitude and the shape of the voltage waveform used in CAFM, which can be explained by the charge trapping effect. Furthermore, resonant tunneling transistors are demonstrated based on BP/hBN/BP stacks in which the locations of the NDR peaks are tunable by the electrostatic gating. As compared to the traditional tunneling diodes based on bulk materials, the tunneling devices based on thin boron nitride tunneling barrier and high mobility black phosphorus offer ultra‐high‐speed response. This feature, together with the NDR characteristics, provides the potential for applications in THz oscillators and multi‐value logic devices.

 

Ferroelectric tunneling junctions (FTJs) with tunable tunneling electroresistance (TER) are promising for many emerging applications, including non-volatile memories and neurosynaptic computing. One of the key challenges in FTJs is the balance between the polarization value and the tunneling current. In order to achieve a sizable on-current, the thickness of the ferroelectric layer needs to be scaled down below 5 nm. However, the polarization in these ultra-thin ferroelectric layers is very small, which leads to a low tunneling electroresistance (TER) ratio. In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a new type of FTJ based on metal/Al₂O₃/Zr-doped HfO₂/Si structure. The interfacial Al₂O₃layer and silicon substrate enable sizable TERs even when the thickness of Zr-doped HfO₂(HZO) is above 10 nm. We found that F-N tunneling dominates at read voltages and that the polarization switching in HZO can alter the effective tunneling barrier height and tune the tunneling resistance. The FTJ synapses based on Al₂O₃/HZO stacks show symmetric potentiation/depression characteristics and widely tunable conductance. We also show that spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) can be harnessed from HZO based FTJs. These novel FTJs will have high potential in non-volatile memories and neural network applications.

 

Lateral multiheterostructures with spatially modulated bandgaps have great potential for applications in high-performance electronic, optoelectronic and thermoelectric devices. Multiheterostructures based on transition metal tellurides are especially promising due to their tunable bandgap in a wide range and the rich variety of structural phases. However, the synthesis of telluride-based multiheterostructures remains a challenge due to the low activity of tellurium and the poor thermal stability of tellurium alloys. In this work, we synthesized monolayer WSe 2−2 x Te 2 x /WSe 2−2 y Te 2 y ( x > y ) multiheterostructures in situ using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Photoluminescence analysis and Raman mapping confirm the spatial modulation of the bandgap in the radial direction. Furthermore, field-effect transistors with the channels parallel (type I) and perpendicular (type II) to the multiheterostructure rings were fabricated. Type I transistors exhibit enhanced ambipolar transport, due to the low energy bridges between the source and drain. Remarkably, the photocurrents in type I transistors are two orders of magnitude higher than those in type II transistors, which can be attributed to the fact that the photovoltaic photocurrents generated at the two heterojunctions are summed together in type I transistors, but they cancel each other in type II transistors. These multiheterostructures will provide a new platform for novel electronic/photonic devices with potential applications in broadband light sensing, highly sensitive imaging and ultrafast optoelectronic integrated circuits. 

Alloying in two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) has allowed bandgap engineering and phase transformation, which provide more flexibility and functionality for electronic and photonic devices. To date, many ternary TMD alloys with homogenous compositions have been synthesized. However, realization of bandgap modulation spatially within a single TMD nanosheet remains largely unexplored. In this work, we demonstrate the synthesis of spatially composition-graded WSe2xTe2-2x flakes using an in situ chemical vapor deposition method. The photoluminescence and Raman spectra line-scanning characterization indicate a spatially graded bandgap, which increases from 1.46 eV (center) to 1.61 eV (edge) within one monolayer flake. Furthermore, the electronic devices based on this spatially graded material exhibit tunable transfer characteristics. 

The developing material class of van der Waals (vdW) magnets has attracted great interest due to their novel properties such as gate and strain tunable magnetism. Magnetism at the atomic limit remains difficult to explore however due to the air instability of most vdW ferromagnets. In this work, we demonstrate that pre-fabricated Hall bar electrodes can be used to probe magnetism in Fe3GeTe2 (FGT) flakes via the anomalous Hall effect. Utilizing this device structure, we systematically investigated the magnetic properties of FGT. Clear ferromagnetic hysteresis windows were clearly observed at temperatures up to 200 K. These vdW Hall bar structures provides a highly efficient and damage-free strategy for metal integration, which could be used in many other 2D magnetic materials. 

In this work, we investigated vertical transistors with thin MoTe2 channels. The top and bottom contacts are asymmetrically doped under the electrostatic bias from the back gate. Reconfigurable polarity is observed in the vertical transistor under different current directions. Our results demonstrate short channel vertical transistors based on 2D semiconductor MoTe2 and provide a simple way to achieve run-time reconfiguration without additional control gates, which will be helpful to the design of highly-scaled and high-efficient integrated circuits.