Germanium-doped Metallic Ohmic Contacts in Black Phosphorus Field-Effect Transistors with Ultra-low Contact...

In this work, we demonstrate for the first time an ultra-low contact resistance few-layered black phosphorus (BP) transistor with metallic PGe_x contacts formed by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The on-state current of the transistor can be significantly improved and the I_ON/I_OFF ratio increases by almost 2 order. The hole mobility is enhanced by 25 times to 227 cm²V^-1s^-1. The contact resistance extracted by the transfer length method is 0.365 kΩ∙μm, which is the lowest value in black phosphorus transistors without degradation of I_ON/I_OFF ratio. In addition, the I-V curve of the transistor with PGe_x contact is linear compared to that with Ti contact at 80 K, indicating that a metallic ohmic contact is successfully formed. Finally, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to characterize the PGe_x compound. A signal of P-Ge bond is first observed, further verifying the doping of Ge into BP and the formation of the PGe_x alloy.