SnTe Field Effect Transistors and the Anomalous Electrical Response of Structural Phase Transition

Published

July 14, 2014

Author(s)

Haitao Li, Hui H. Yuan, Hao Zhu, Lin You, Joseph Kopanski, Erhai Zhao, Qiliang Li

Abstract

SnTe is a conventional thermoelectric material and has been newly found to be a topological crystalline insulator. In this work, back-gate SnTe field-effect transistors have been fabricated and fully characterized. The devices exhibit n-type transistor behaviors with excellent current- voltage characteristics and large on/off ratio (> 106). The device threshold voltage, conductance, mobility and subthreshold swing have been studied and compared at different temperatures. We found that the subthreshold swings as a function of temperature have an apparent response to the SnTe phase transition between cubic and rhombohedral structures at 110 K. The abnormal and rapid increase in subthreshold swing at the phase transition temperature may be due to the soft phonon/structure change which causes the large increase in SnTe dielectric constant. In addition, external electric field was found to have an impact on the phase transition.

Citation

Applied Physics Letters

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

Tin telluride (SnTe), field effect transistor, subthreshold swing, static dielectric constant, phase change, nanoelectronics

Citation

Li, H. , Yuan, H. , Zhu, H. , You, L. , Kopanski, J. , Zhao, E. and Li, Q. (2014), SnTe Field Effect Transistors and the Anomalous Electrical Response of Structural Phase Transition, Applied Physics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4887055 (Accessed March 13, 2025)