Operating Principles of Vertical Transistors Based on Monolayer Two-Dimensional Semiconductor Heterojunctions

A vertical transistor based on a double gated, atomically thin heterojunction is theoretically examined. Both p-type and n-type transistor operations can be conveniently achieved by using one of the two gates as the switching gate. The transistor shows excellent saturation of output I-V characteristics due to drain-induced depletion and lack of tunneling barrier layers. The subthreshold slope could be below the thermionic limit due to band filtering as the switching mechanism. The atomically thin vertical PN heterojunction can be electrostatically modulated from a type II heterojunction to a broken bandgap alignment, which is preferred for maximizing the on-current.