Atomically engineered epitaxial anatase TiO2 metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors

Abstract

Anatase TiO2 is a promising material for a vast array of electronic, energy, and environmental applications, including photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and sensors. A key requirement for these applications is the ability to modulate its electrical properties without dominant dopant scattering and while maintaining high carrier mobility. Here, we demonstrate the room temperature field-effect modulation of the conducting epitaxial interface between anatase TiO2 and LaAlO3 (001), which arises for LaO-terminated LaAlO3, while the AlO2-terminated interface is insulating. This approach, together with the metal-semiconductor field-effect transistor geometry, naturally bypasses the gate/channel interface traps, resulting in a high field-effect mobility μFE of 3.14 cm2 (V s)−1 approaching 98% of the corresponding Hall mobility μHall. Accordingly, the channel conductivity is modulated over 6 orders of magnitude over a gate voltage range of ∼4 V.