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High-performance, multifunctional devices based on asymmetric van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Two-dimensional materials are of interest for the development of electronic devices due to their useful properties and compatibility with silicon-based technology. Van der Waals heterostructures, in which two-dimensional materials are stacked on top of each other, allow different materials and properties to be combined and for multifunctional devices to be created. Here we show that an asymmetric van der Waals heterostructure device, which is composed of graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum ditelluride, can function as a high-performance diode, transistor, photodetector and programmable rectifier. Due to the asymmetric structure of the device, charge-carrier injection can be switched between tunnelling and thermal activation under negative and positive bias conditions, respectively. As a result, the device exhibits a high current on/off ratio of 6 × 108 and a rectifying ratio of ~108. The device can also function as a programmable rectifier with stable retention and continuously tunable memory states, as well as a high program/erase current ratio of ~109 and a rectification ratio of ~107.

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Fig. 1: Device structure and basic characterization.
Fig. 2: Electrical transport properties of the device.
Fig. 3: Photoresponse properties of the device.
Fig. 4: High-performance programmable rectifier.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (no. 2016YFA0200700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 61625401, 61474033, 61574050 and 11674072), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. XDA09040201) and the CAS Key Laboratory of Nanosystem and Hierarchical Fabrication. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

J.H. conceived and supervised the project. R.C. fabricated the devices and performed electrical and optoelectronic measurements. L.Y. carried out the Raman and AFM measurements. R.C., F.W. and J.H. analysed the data and co-wrote the manuscript in consultation with L.Y., Z.W., Y.W. and T.A.S.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun He.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Table 1 and Supplementary Figures 1–10

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Cheng, R., Wang, F., Yin, L. et al. High-performance, multifunctional devices based on asymmetric van der Waals heterostructures. Nat Electron 1, 356–361 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-018-0086-0

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