Field-effect transistor for biosensing applications using a graphene channel with amine-rich coatings

Ultrasensitive Heterojunctions of Graphene and 2D Perovskites Reveal Spontaneous Iodide Loss

Graphene channel liquid container field effect transistor pH sensor with interdigital microtrench for liquid ion testing is presented. Growth morphology and pH sensing property of continuous few‐layer graphene (FLG) and quasi‐continuous monolayer graphene (MG) channels are compared. The experiment results show that the source‐to‐drain current of the graphene channel FET has a significant and fast response after adsorption of the measured molecule and ion at the room temperature; at the same time, the FLG response time is less than 4 s. The resolution of MG (0.01) on pH value is one order of magnitude higher than that of FLG (0.1). The reason is that with fewer defects, the MG is more likely to adsorb measured molecule and ion, and the molecules and ions can make the transport property change. The output sensitivities of MG are from 34.5% to 57.4% when the pH value is between 7 and 8, while sensitivity of FLG is 4.75% when the pH = 7. The sensor fabrication combines traditional silicon technique and flexible electronic technology and provides an easy way to develop graphene‐based electrolyte gas sensor or even biological sensors.

Field effect transistors with graphene channels were interfaced with semiconductor quantum dot (QD) array. Electrical characteristics and opto-electronic behaviour of the elements were assessed. Relative photo-resistance (the difference in channel resistances under dark and under light conditions and normalized by the channel’s resistance) was observed as a function of drain-source potential. Graphene – a mono layer thick crystalline form of carbon - portrays high conductivity, chemical inertness, mechanical robustness and unusual dispersion relations [1]. Characteristics of free-standing, mono and bi-layer graphene have been studied when deposited over nano-pore array of anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) substrate. One may postulate that QDs, filling the pores, will have a profound effect on the graphene channel. Such arrangement led to the realization of the first visible surface plasmon laser [2]. The field effect transistors (FET) were fabricated on oxidized silicon wafers. They were composed of graphene channels and two metal electrodes, used as drain and source electrodes. The silicon wafer served as a back gate electrode. Contacts to the graphene were found Ohmic. Aluminum, was deposited on the oxidized silicon wafer and was anodized according to our previous recipe. Core-shell semiconductor CdSe/ZnS QDs were imbedded in the anodized aluminum pores and the semi-transparent graphene was deposited on top of the anodized layer. Unlike ordinary graphene channels, the current between the drain and source, Ids, decreased as a function of gate bias, Vgs. When illuminated by a 50 mW/cm2 white light source, the channel exhibited a clear relative differential resistance at Vds=0.3 V. This behavior was attributed to a negative differential resistance effect. [1] A. C. Ferrari, J. C. Meyer, V. Scardaci, M. Lazzeri, F. Mauri, S. Piscance, D. Jiang, K. S. Novoselov, S. Roth and A. K. Geim, “Raman Spectrum of Graphene and Graphene Layers”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 97, 187401 (2006). [2] R. Li, A. Banerjee and H. Grebel, “The possibility for surface plasmon lasers”, Optics Express, 17, 1622-1627 (2009). [3] S. W. Lee, A. Kornblit, D. Lopez, S. V. Rotkin. A. Sirenko, H. Grebel, “Negative Differential Resistance: Gate Controlled and Photoconductance Enhancement in Carbon Nanotube Intra-connects”, Nano Letters, DOI: 10.1021/nl803036a (2009).

We evaluate the terahertz (THz) detectors based on field-effect transistor (FET) with the graphene channel (GC) and a floating metal gate (MG) separated from the GC by a black-phosphorus (b-P) or black-arsenic (b-As) barrier layer. The operation of these GC-FETs is associated with the heating of the two-dimensional electron gas in the GC by impinging THz radiation leading to thermionic emission of the hot electrons from the GC to the MG. This results in the variation of the floating gate potential, which affects the source–drain current. At the THz radiation frequencies close to the plasmonic resonance frequencies in the gated GC, the variation of the source–drain current and, hence, the detector responsivity can be resonantly large.

The substrate plays a crucial role in determining the transport and low-frequency noise behavior of graphene field-effect devices. Typically, a heavily doped Si/SiO2 substrate is used to fabricate these devices for efficient gating. Trapping-detrapping processes close to the graphene/substrate interface are the dominant sources of resistance fluctuations in the graphene channel, while Coulomb fluctuations arising due to any remote charge fluctuations inside the bulk of the substrate are effectively screened by the heavily doped substrate. Here, we present the electronic transport and low-frequency noise characteristics of a large-area CVD graphene field-effect transistor (FET) prepared on a lightly doped Si/SiO2 substrate (NA ≈ 1015 cm-3). Through a systematic characterization of transport, noise, and capacitance at various temperatures, we reveal that the remote Si/SiO2 interface can affect the charge transport in graphene severely and any charge fluctuations inside the bulk of the silicon substrate can be sensed by the graphene channel. The resistance (R) vs back-gate voltage (Vbg) characteristics of the device show a hump around the depletion region formed at the SiO2/Si interface, confirmed by the capacitance (C)-voltage (V) measurement. A low-frequency noise measurement on these fabricated devices shows a peak in the noise amplitude close to the depletion region. This indicates that due to the absence of any charge layer at the Si/SiO2 interface, the screening ability decreases, and as a consequence, any fluctuations in the deep-level Coulomb impurities inside the silicon substrate can be observed as noise in resistance in the graphene channel via mobility fluctuations. The noise behavior on ionic liquid-gated graphene on the same substrate exhibits no such peak in noise and can be explained by the interfacial trapping-detrapping processes close to the graphene channel. Our study will definitely be useful for integrating graphene with the existing silicon technology, in particular, for high-frequency applications.

Contact resistance (R C ) is of great importance for radio frequency (RF) applications of graphene, especially graphene field effect transistors (FETs) with short channel. FETs and transmission line model test structures based on chemical vapor deposition grown graphene are fabricated. The effects of employing traditional lithography solvent (Acetone) and strong solvents for photo resist, such as N, N-Dimethylacetamide (ZDMAC) and N-Methyl pyrrolidone (NMP), are systematically investigated. It was found that ZDMAC and NMP have more proficiency than acetone to remove the photo-resist residues and contaminations attached on graphene surface, enabling clean surface of graphene. However, strong solvents are found to destroy the lattice structure of graphene channel and induce defects in graphene lattice. Clean surface contributes to a significant reduction in the R C between graphene channel and metal electrode, and the defects introduced on graphene surface underneath metal electrodes also contribute the reduction of R C . But defects and deformation of lattice will increase the resistance in graphene channel and lead to the compromise of device performance. To address this problem, a mix wet-chemical approach employing both acetone and ZDMAC was developed in our study to realize a 19.07% reduction of R C , without an unacceptable mass production of defects.

We have fabricated top-gated field effect transistors (FETs) using graphene synthesized by chemical vapor deposition directly on a SiO2/Si substrate without using any transferring processes. Graphene was synthesized on an Fe catalyst film on the substrate at 650°C. The catalyst film was then etched after both ends of the graphene were fixed by source and drain electrodes, leaving the graphene channel connecting the two electrodes. Top-gated FETs were then made by covering graphene channels with HfO2 and depositing top electrodes. The drain current was successfully modulated by the gate voltage and exhibited the bipolar behavior that is characteristic of graphene. Also, it has been shown that graphene channels can sustain an electric current with a density of 107–108 /cm2. Our newly developed fabrication process paves a way to fabricate graphene transistors all over large substrates including Si and glass.

Carbonaceous field effect transistor with graphene and diamondlike carbon

DNA hybridization was electrically detected by graphene field-effect transistors. Probe DNA was modified on the graphene channel by a pyrene-based linker material. The transfer characteristic was shifted by the negative charges on the probe DNA, and the drain current was changed by the full-complementary DNA while no current change was observed after adding noncomplementary DNA, indicating that the graphene field-effect transistor detected the DNA hybridization. In addition, the number of DNAs was estimated by the simple plate capacitor model. As a result, one probe DNA was attached on the graphene channel per 10×10 nm2, indicating their high density functionalization. We estimated that 30% of probe DNA on the graphene channel was hybridized with 200 nM full-complementary DNA while only 5% of probe DNA was bound to the noncomplementary DNA. These results will help to pave the way for future biosensing applications based on graphene FETs.

We propose the terahertz (THz) detectors based on field-effect transistors (FETs) with the graphene channel (GC) and the black-Arsenic (b-As) black-Phosphorus (b-P), or black-Arsenic-Phosphorus (b-As_xP_{1-x}) gate barrier layer. The operation of the GC-FET detectors is associated with the carrier heating in the GC by the THz electric field resonantly excited by incoming radiation leading to an increase in the rectified current between the channel and the gate over the b-As_xP_{1-x} energy barrier layer (BLs). The specific feature of the GC-FETs under consideration is relatively low energy BLs and the possibility to optimize the device characteristics by choosing the barriers containing a necessary number of the b-As_xP_{1-x} atomic layers and a proper gate voltage. The excitation of the plasma oscillations in the GC-FETs leads to the resonant reinforcement of the carrier heating and the enhancement of the detector responsivity. The room temperature responsivity can exceed the values of 10^3 A/W. The speed of the GC-FET detector’s response to the modulated THz radiation is determined by the processes of carrier heating. As shown, the modulation frequency can be in the range of several GHz at room temperatures.

The ‘DLC-GFET’, a graphene-channel field effect transistor with a diamondlike carbon (DLC) top-gate dielectric film, is presented. The DLC film was formed ‘directly’ onto the graphene channel without forming passivation interlayers using our photoemission-assisted plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PA-CVD), where the plasma was precisely controlled by significant photoemission from the sample with quite low electric power, minimizing plasma damage to the channel. The DLC-GFET exhibits clear ambipolar characteristics with a slightly positive shift of the neutral points (Dirac voltages). Relatively high transconductances were obtained as 14.6 (8.8) mS/mm in the n (p) channel modes, respectively, with a thick DLC gate dielectric of 48 nm and a long gate length of 5 μm, promising vertical scaling-down to improve the high-frequency performance. The positive shift of the Dirac voltage is due to unintentional hole doping from an oxygen species like H2O in the DLC film into the graphene channel, suggesting that a modulation-doped DLC structure with a δ-doped oxygen (nitrogen) species for the p (n) mode will overcome high access resistance.

Side charge propagation in simultaneous KPFM and transport measurement of humidity exposed graphene FET sensor

Review is devoted to the recent theoretical studies of the impact of domain structure of ferroelectric substrate on graphene conductance. An analytical description of the hysteresis memory effect in a field effect transistor based on graphene-on-ferroelectric, taking into account absorbed dipole layers on the free surface of graphene and localized states on its interfaces is considered. The aspects of the recently developed theory of p-n junctions conductivity in a graphene channel on a ferroelectric substrate, which are created by a 180-degree ferroelectric domain structure, are analyzed, and cases of different current regimes from ballistic to diffusion one are considered. The influence of size effects in such systems and the possibility of using the results for improving the characteristics of field effect transistors with a graphene channel, non-volatile ferroelectric memory cells with random access, sensors, as well as for miniaturization of various devices of functional nanoelectronics are discussed.

ABSTRACTThe ‘DLC-GFET’, a graphene field effect transistor with a diamondlike carbon (DLC) top-gate dielectric film, is presented. The DLC film was formed ‘directly’ onto the graphene channel without forming passivation interlayers using our original photoemission-assisted plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PA-CVD), where the plasma was precisely controlled by photoemission from the sample with quite low electric power to minimize plasma damage to the channel. The DLC-GFET exhibits clear ambipolar characteristics with a slightly positive shift of the neutral points (Dirac voltages). Relatively high transconductances were obtained as 14.6 (8.8) mS/mm in the n (p) channel modes, respectively, with a thick gate dielectric of 48 nm and a long gate length of 5 μm, promising vertical scaling-down to improve the high-frequency performance. The positive shift of the Dirac voltage is due to unintentional hole doping from oxygen species in the DLC film into the graphene channel, promising a minute modulation doped structure with oxygen to overcome high resistance in the access region. Hence, a DLC film deposited by PA-CVD is a candidate for the gate dielectric on graphene.

Graphene-based devices have extensive applications in aqueous environments. The molecular interactions across the graphene sheet significantly impact various devices, although few researches focused on elucidating the interface effects. In this study, we utilize trench structure to make graphene unilaterally and bilaterally suspended in water. The conduction status of both lateral and longitudinal currents (Id, Is, Ig) of graphene was monitored under two suspension scenarios to investigate the changes in interface evolution with the introduction of solvent-solvent interactions. For unilaterally suspended graphene, the current perpendicular to the graphene channel direction remains in the off state. For bilaterally suspended graphene, the current path is formed vertically between the graphene channel and the gate electrode, perpendicular to the direction of the graphene. This experimental setup illustrates the possibilities for exploring interfacial characteristics at the interface between 2D materials and solutions through practical experimentation.The detailed fabrication process of the graphene field-effect-transistor (GFET) device is depicted in Fig. 1. To fabricate the microchannel structure, a microfluidic pattern was generated through photolithography on the SiO2/Si substrate spun with a layer of photoresist. Then, the corresponding microchannel pattern with a thickness of 300 nm SiO2 and 30 μm Si layer was etched by reactive-ion etching (RIE) to form a trench capable of storing water. Afterward, Au electrodes were placed next to the microfluidic channel via evaporation utilizing a shadow mask. The second critical step involves the preparation of graphene. Graphene sheets were grown on a copper foil through the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. With the support of PMMA film, physically stacked graphene bilayer graphene was transferred to the target substrate. Ultimately, the suspended bilayer graphene was submerged in acetone for 24 hours to remove the PMMA layer and immersed in isopropanol (IPA) and DI water to clean the residues.According to this device structure, we successfully fabricate the suspension of graphene unilaterally or bilaterally in water. When introducing water through the trench, the bottom surface of the suspended graphene contacts with water molecules, while the upper surface of the suspended graphene is exposed to air. This configuration leads to a unilateral suspension in water (unilateral-suspension GFET). Conversely, when water is introduced through the trench and water is also added above the graphene channel, graphene comes into contact with water on both sides. This configuration results in its bilateral suspension in the water (bilateral-suspension GFET). The electronic transport characteristics of unilateral-suspension GFET and bilateral-suspension GFET were measured by Agilent semiconductor analysis B1500A. The gate voltage was applied to water through an Ag/AgCl electrode. Fig. 2 (a) displays the Raman spectroscopy of suspended graphene on GFET device. The most notable features of the Raman spectrum are the G peak around 1580 cm-1, and the 2D band around 2700 cm-1, which are typical characteristics of graphene. The ID/IG ratio of 0.19 indicates the good quality of the graphene layers. As shown in Fig. 2 (b), the scanning electron microscope (SEM) result of suspended graphene on the GFET device verifies the presence of large-area graphene. The diagram displays a clear demarcation line, facilitating the identification of graphene presence on the substrate. This can also imply the excellent quality of graphene with few defects.The transport behavior of unilateral-suspension GFET and bilateral-suspension GFET are measured individually, as shown in Fig. 3. The sum (ΔI) of The drain current behavior (Id) and source current behavior (Is), and gate current behavior (Ig) are recorded with changed gate voltages (from -1V to +1V) and constant VDS (VDS= 0.1V). For unilateral-suspension GFET, ΔI and Ig keep constant at zero, and there is no conduction path perpendicular to the graphene channel direction. For bilateral-suspension GFET, ΔI and Ig at positive gate voltage are opposite in direction and equal in absolute value, this indicates the formation of an obvious path between the channel and gate electrode. The apparent interfacial evolution is believed to change with the introduction of the other side of water.In conclusion, we compare the electrical characteristics shown by two different suspension situations of graphene-based field effect transistors. There are some interesting results of the conduction path relating to interfacial evolution. This result has potential for chemical sensing or battery application. Furthermore, it can contribute to fundamental research about the interface interaction between suspended graphene and water. Figure 1