Silicene-Based FET for Logical Technology

Abstract

2-D materials are considered to have great potential to integrate future generations of nanoelectronic devices aiming to outperform the limitations that will eventually reach the conventional silicon technology. In this letter, a field-effect transistor composed by half-hydrogenated-silicene (HHS) connected to pristine silicene regions is theoretically investigated. Using ab-initio ballistic transport simulations based on DFT, it is shown that this device has an extremely high ${I}_{ \mathrm{ON}}/{I}_{ \mathrm{OFF}}$ ratio, for very small bias voltages and for channel lengths smaller than 10 nm. In particular, an expression for ${I}_{ \mathrm{ON}}/{I}_{ \mathrm{OFF}}$ = exp {[3.35A−1] $w$ } is obtained, where ${w}$ is the channel length. Finally, we demonstrated that the peculiar electronic structure of the HHS allows a fine-tuning of the charge transport mechanism resulting in ultra-low values for the subthreshold slope close to 24.5 meV /dec, which overcomes the inferior limit of 60 meV /dec claimed for conventional devices.