Novel two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors arsenene and antimonene are promising channel materials for next-generation field effect transistors (FETs) because of the high carrier mobility and stability under ambient conditions. Stimulated by the recent experimental development of sub-5 nm 2D MoS2 FETs, we investigate the device performance of monolayer (ML) arsenene and antimonene in the sub-5 nm region by using accurate ab initio quantum transport simulation. We reveal that the optimized sub-5 nm double-gate (DG) ML arsenene and antimonene metal-oxide-semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs) can fulfill the low power requirements of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors in 2028 until the gate length is scaled down to 4 nm. When the gate length is scaled down to 1 nm, the performances of the DG ML arsenene and antimonene MOSFETs are superior to that of the DG ML MoS2 MOSFETs in terms of the on-current. Therefore, 2D arsenene and antimonene are probably more suitable for ultrascaled FETs than 2D MoS2 in the post-silicon era.
Keywords: density functional theory; monolayer arsenene and antimonene; performance limit; quantum transport simulations; sub-5 nm transistor.