van der Waals dielectrics for threshold engineering in two-dimensional field effect transistors
Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are promising for next-generation field-effect transistors (FETs), but their integration into complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductors (CMOS) logic is hindered by improper threshold voltages ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> ), leading to excessive power consumption. While past efforts have focused on improving gate electrostatics and near-ideal subthreshold swing ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi></mml:math> ), systematic <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> engineering in 2D FETs remains unexplored. Here, we investigate high-κ van der Waals (vdW) dielectrics including metal oxyhalides such as LaOBr, BiOBr, and BiOCl, and bimetallic thiophosphates such as LiInP<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> (LIPS), LiInP<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>6</sub> (LIPSe) and CuInP<sub>2</sub>S<sub>6</sub> (CIPS), and demonstrate that bimetallic thiophosphates enable programmable and non-volatile <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> tuning in both n-type monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> and p-type bilayer WSe<sub>2</sub> FETs. Leveraging ion-mediated <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> tuning, we realize 2D CMOS inverters with nearly three orders of magnitude reduction in static power while maintaining high switching speed. Combining experiments with industry-compatible SPICE modeling, we identify an optimal <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mi>t</mml:mi> <mml:mi>h</mml:mi></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> window that minimizes power with negligible delay overhead, enabling built-in power gating and improved power-performance-area metrics without additional sleep transistors.
Authors
- Joan Marie Redwing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7906-452X)
- Safdar Imam
- Dipanjan Sen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5781-4027)
- Shubham Sahay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9992-3240)
- Vlastimil Mazánek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8524-3364)
- Harikrishnan Ravichandran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2230-370X)
- Zdenek Sofer
- Chen Chen
- Jan Luxa
- Saptarshi Das
- Md Yasir Bashir
- Subir Ghosh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0883-4478)
- Krishnendu Mukhopadhyay
- Thomas S. Ie
- Mercouri G. Kanatzidis
Institutions
- Northwestern University (US)
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (CZ)
- Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-02-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69089-6
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Northwestern University
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Ministerstvo Školství, Mládeže a Tělovýchovy
- Grantová Agentura České Republiky
- Ministry of Education, India
- Office of Naval Research
- Division of Materials Research
- Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems
- Army Research Office