Room temperature negative differential resistance in clay-graphite paper transistors. (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Shu-Ting; Yang, Tilo H.; Lu, Chun-I; Chang, Wen-Hao; Simbulan, Kristan Bryan; Lan, Yann-Wen
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 176(2021)
• Page Start: 440
• Page End: 445
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: Negative differential resistance -- Band-to-band tunneling -- Paper transistor -- Clay-graphite; Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2021.01.156
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: Paper electronics have been fast developed in recent years due to their degradability and recyclability; however, most of them are barely equipped with logic functions, impeding them from becoming autonomous on-paper systems. To provide a working unit for logic implementations, a paper field-effect transistor (FET) with a clay-graphite channel that demonstrated negative differential resistance (NDR) is fabricated in this study. The device exhibited a p-type semiconductor characteristic with an optical bandgap of ∼1.97 eV according to photoluminescence analysis, resulting from considerable defective graphite mixed with clay in the channel. Considering that the NDR behavior is theoretically predicted to be tunable by the contact resistance, we fabricated FETs with different contact resistances and observed that the NDR behavior occurred in devices with relatively lower contact resistance. The NDR effect is also tunable by varying the gate voltage, which matches well with simulation results. The possible mechanism for the NDR behavior is the decrease in carrier drift velocity induced by band-to-band tunneling, associated with impurities-induced trapping states and gate-induced confined states. This work provides a promising and easy pathway to develop digital components using paper electronics in the near future. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: A paper field-effect transistor with clay-graphite channel exhibits negative differential resistance (NDR) behavior. The device shows a p-type characteristic and an optical bandgap ∼1.97 (eV) due to defective graphite mixed with clay. The NDR behavior is tunable by the contact resistance and the gate voltage. The NDR behavior is believed to be originated from the decrease of drift velocity induced by band-to-band tunneling.