Ti3 C2 Tx MXene van der Waals gate contact for GaN high electron mobility transistors.

Abstract

Gate controllability is a key factor that determines the performance of GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). However, at traditional metal-GaN interface, direct chemical interaction between metal and GaN can result in fixed charges and traps, which can significantly deteriorate the gate controllability. In this study, Ti3 C2 Tx MXene films were integrated into GaN HEMTs as the gate contact, wherein van der Waals heterojunctions were formed between MXene films and GaN without direct chemical bonding. The GaN HEMTs with enhanced gate controllability exhibited an extremely low off-state current (IOFF ) of 10-7 mA/mm, a record high ION /IOFF current ratio of ∼1013 (which is six orders of magnitude higher than conventional Ni/Au contact), a high off-state drain breakdown voltage of 1085V, and a near-ideal subthreshold swing of 61mV/dec. This work shows the great potential of MXene films as gate electrodes in wide-bandgap semiconductor devices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.