Two-Dimensional Cold Electron Transport for Steep-Slope Transistors

Room-temperature Fermi-Dirac electron thermal excitation in conventional three-dimensional (3D) or two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors generates hot electrons with a relatively long thermal tail in energy distribution. These hot electrons set a fundamental obstacle known as the "Boltzmann tyranny" that limits the subthreshold swing (SS) and therefore the minimum power consumption of 3D and 2D field-effect transistors (FETs). Here, we investigated a graphene (Gr)-enabled cold electron injection where the Gr acts as the Dirac source to provide the cold electrons with a localized electron density distribution and a short thermal tail at room temperature. These cold electrons correspond to an electronic refrigeration effect with an effective electron temperature of ∼145 K in the monolayer MoS₂, which enables the transport factor lowering and thus the steep-slope switching (across for three decades with a minimum SS of 29 mV/decade at room temperature) for a monolayer MoS₂ FET. Especially, a record-high sub-60-mV/decade current density (over 1 μA/μm) can be achieved compared to conventional steep-slope technologies such as tunneling FETs or negative capacitance FETs using 2D or 3D channel materials. Our work demonstrates the potential of a 2D Dirac-source cold electron transistor as a steep-slope transistor concept for future energy-efficient nanoelectronics.