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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Tunnel field-effect transistors exhibiting performance beyond the Boltzmann thermionic limit
Zehan Wu1, Ke Yang1, Wanqing Meng2
1Department of Physics and Materials, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China.
Abstract:
The International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS) has identified the tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) as the most promising next-generation logic device that enables sustainable downscaling in driving voltage and power consumption. Demonstrating an acceptable sub-Boltzmann-limit ON current (namely I60, the current level when a TFET switches to a subthreshold swing level of 60 millivolts per decade) and current-switching ratio has presented a formidable challenge. We report a TFET based on a bismuth/indium selenide (Bi/InSe) heterostructure that exhibits an I60 of up to ~10 microamperes per micrometer and a current-switching ratio of >107. We attribute such promising TFETs to precise material design, clean interfaces fabricated under vacuum, and band engineering based on subthreshold swing physics. Our results demonstrate a high-performance basic building block that meets the IRDS requirements for next-generation integrated circuits.
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