Nonvolatile and Programmable Photodoping in MoTe₂ for Photoresist-Free Complementary Electronic Devices

2D transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based electronic devices have been extensively explored toward the post-Moore era. Huge efforts have been devoted to modulating the doping profile of TMDs to achieve 2D p-n junctions and inverters, the fundamental units in logic circuits. Here, photoinduced nonvolatile and programmable electron doping in MoTe₂ based on a heterostructure of MoTe₂ and hexagonal boron nitride (BN) is reported. The electron transport property in the MoTe₂ device can be precisely controlled by modulating the magnitude of the photodoping gate exerted on BN. Through tuning the polarity of the photodoping gate exerted on BN under illumination, such a doping effect in MoTe₂ can be programmed with excellent repeatability and is retained for over 14 d in the absence of an external perturbation. By spatially controlling the photodoping region in MoTe₂ , a photoresist-free p-n junction and inverter in the MoTe₂ homostructure are achieved. The MoTe₂ diode exhibits a near-unity ideality factor of ≈1.13 with a rectification ratio of ≈1.7 × 10⁴ . Moreover, the gain of the MoTe₂ inverter reaches ≈98, which is among the highest values for 2D-material-based homoinverters. These findings promise photodoping as an effective method to achieve 2D-TMDs-based nonvolatile and programmable complementary electronic devices.