Topological phase change transistors based on tellurium Weyl semiconductor

Jiewei Chen; Ting Zhang; Jingli Wang; Lin Xu; Ziyuan Lin; Jidong Liu; Cong Wang; Ning Zhang; Shu Ping Lau; Wenjing Zhang; Manish Chhowalla; Yang Chai

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abn3837

Topological phase change transistors based on tellurium Weyl semiconductor

Sci Adv. 2022 Jun 10;8(23):eabn3837. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn3837. Epub 2022 Jun 10.

Authors

Jiewei Chen^{1

2}, Ting Zhang³, Jingli Wang^{1

4}, Lin Xu¹, Ziyuan Lin¹, Jidong Liu⁵, Cong Wang^{1

2}, Ning Zhang^{1

2}, Shu Ping Lau^{1

2}, Wenjing Zhang⁵, Manish Chhowalla⁶, Yang Chai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Physics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
² The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.
³ Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
⁴ Frontier Institute of Chip and System, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁵ International Collaborative Laboratory of 2D Materials for Optoelectronics Science and Technology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
⁶ Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FS, UK.

Abstract

Modern electronics demand transistors with extremely high performance and energy efficiency. Charge-based transistors with conventional semiconductors experience substantial heat dissipation because of carrier scattering. Here, we demonstrate low-loss topological phase change transistors (TPCTs) based on tellurium, a Weyl semiconductor. By modulating the energy separation between the Fermi level and the Weyl point of tellurium through electrostatic gate modulation, the device exhibits topological phase change between Weyl (Chern number ≠ 0) and conventional (Chern number = 0) semiconductors. In the Weyl ON state, the device has low-loss transport characteristics due to the global topology of gauge fields against external perturbations; the OFF state exhibits trivial charge transport in the conventional phase by moving the Fermi level into the bandgap. The TPCTs show a high ON/OFF ratio (10⁸) at low operation voltage (≤2 volts) and high ON-state conductance (39 mS/μm). Our studies provide alternative strategies for realizing ultralow power electronics.