Letter Cite This: Nano Lett. 2019, 19, 4738−4744
pubs.acs.org/NanoLett
Gate-Tuned Insulator−Metal Transition in Electrolyte-Gated Transistors Based on Tellurene Xinglong Ren,† Yan Wang,‡ Zuoti Xie,† Feng Xue,† Chris Leighton,† and C. Daniel Frisbie*,† †
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and ‡Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, United States
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S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Tellurene is a recently discovered 2D material with high hole mobility and air stability, rendering it a good candidate for future applications in electronics, optoelectronics, and energy devices. However, the physical properties of tellurene remain poorly understood. In this paper, we report on the fabrication and characterization of high-performance electrolyte-gated transistors (EGTs) based on solution-grown tellurene flakes 1 × 1013 cm−2, as confirmed by the temperature dependence of resistance and magnetoresistance measurements. Wide-range tuning of the electronic ground state of tellurene is thus achievable in EGTs, opening up new opportunities to realize electrical control of its physical properties. KEYWORDS: Insulator−metal transition, electrolyte gating, 2D tellurene, charge transport
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stability in air;29,31,32 more recently, the quantum Hall effect has even been observed in tellurene at low temperatures.33 In addition to FET applications, tellurene can also be used to fabricate short-wave infrared photodetectors31 and nonlinear photonic devices.34 Moreover, density functional theory calculations suggest that tellurene has intriguing structural, ferroelectric, thermoelectric, and topological properties.35−38 Collectively, these findings highlight the potential of tellurene as a good platform for fundamental studies, potentially paving the way for future applications of tellurene-based devices. Here, we report the electrical characterization of EGTs based on tellurene and the observation of a gate-tuned insulator−metal transition. Our results show that solutiongrown tellurene flakes can be fabricated into high-performance p-type EGTs with charge densities >1013 cm−2, mobilities >400 cm2 V−1 s−1, and operating voltages 1013 cm−2) at targeted surfaces, has been widely applied in field-effect transport experiments based on a variety of materials.1−4 Due to the existence of strong electric fields and thus high charge densities, electrical control of materials properties can be realized both electrostatically and electrochemically in the electrolyte-gated transistor (EGT) geometry, simply by varying the gate voltage (VG).3,4 The effectiveness and ease of electrolyte gating make it a powerful tool to tune transitions among different electronic phases. Since the first observation of a gate-induced insulator−metal transition in epitaxial ZnO films in 2007,5 for example, the electrolyte gating approach has been applied to trigger electronic phase transitions in a broad range of materials, including organic semiconductors,6−8 transition metal and complex oxides,9−14 1D nanowires and nanotubes,15−18 and 2D van der Waals layered materials.19−25 Upon the discovery of graphene in 2004,26 2D materials (e.g., transition metal dichalcogenides,27 black phosphorus,28 etc.) have attracted significant attention due to their attractive electronic and optical properties. Recently, a new elemental 2D material, tellurene (i.e., nm thick tellurium (Te) flakes), was discovered, showing promising properties.29 Te has a trigonal crystal structure, in which individual atoms are covalently bonded into 1D helical chains, with van der Waals interactions bonding the neighboring chains together.30 Under appropriate conditions, 2D flakes of Te with thicknesses −0.2 V strongly localized insulating behavior occurs. Around −0.5 V this gives way to weak localization, the resistance upturn at −0.5 V occurring
ORCID
Xinglong Ren: 0000-0001-9824-5767 Yan Wang: 0000-0003-1264-3794 Zuoti Xie: 0000-0002-1828-0122 Chris Leighton: 0000-0003-2492-0816 C. Daniel Frisbie: 0000-0002-4735-2228 4742
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b01827 Nano Lett. 2019, 19, 4738−4744
Letter
Nano Letters Notes
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The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was primarily supported by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation at the University of Minnesota under Award DMR-1420013. Parts of this work were carried out in the Characterization Facility, University of Minnesota, which receives partial support from NSF through the MRSEC program (DMR-1420013), and in the Minnesota Nano Center, which receives partial support from NSF through the NINN program (NNCI-1542202). X.R. thanks Rui Ma and Jiayi He for helpful discussions and experimental assistance.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b01827 Nano Lett. 2019, 19, 4738−4744
