11:00 AM - EP07.05.03
Current Carrying Capacity and Low-Frequency Noise in Quasi-One-Dimensional Van der Waals Nanowires and Nanoribbons
Adane Geremew1,Ruben Salgado1,Amirmahdi Mohammadzadeh1,Matthew Bloodgood2,Tina Salguero2,Alexander Balandin1
University of California, Riverside1,University of Georgia2
Show Abstract
As the aggressive scaling in the complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology continues, there is a growing need to examine new materials that can be used for nm-scale local interconnects. At present, the current density sustained by Cu interconnects in CMOS technology is between 2 MA/cm2 to 3 MA/cm2. We recently proposed that quasi-one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals materials, such as transition metal trichalcogenides (TMTs), have properties attractive for applications in nm-scale electronics [1-2]. In a way similar to transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), which exfoliate into 2D layers, TMTs exfoliate, or can be grown into, quasi-1D atomic thread bundles [1-4]. We found that metallic TaSe3 nanowires have breakdown current density on the order of ~10 MA/cm2 [1]. In principle, such quasi-1D materials could be ultimately downscaled by exfoliation, or grown directly, into nanowires with a cross-section of ~1 nm × 1 nm, which corresponds to an individual atomic thread, i.e. MX3 chain. In this presentation we show that nanoribbons made of ZrTe3, another member of the TMT family, reveal exceptionally high current density, on the order of ~100 MA/cm2, at the peak of the stressing DC current [3]. We have used low-frequency noise (LFN) spectroscopy to investigate carrier recombination in such materials and verify reliability of the van der Waals interconnects [4]. It was found that LFN in ZrTe3 reveals conventional 1/f behavior near room temperature (f is frequency). However, at low temperature it is dominated by the Lorentzian bulges of the generation–recombination noise at low temperatures, which is unusual for metals. Unexpectedly, the corner frequency of the observed Lorentzian peaks revealed a strong sensitivity to the applied bias. This dependence on electric field was explained by the Frenkel–Poole effect in the scenario where the voltage drop happens predominantly on the defects, which block the quasi-1D conduction channels. We also have investigated electrical characteristics of a range of other quasi-1D van der Waals materials with the goal of identifying the best material for the interconnects. The local temperature measurements have been conducted using micro-Raman spectroscopy in order determine the breakdown mechanism in the quasi-1D van der Waals metallic interconnects. The obtained results are important for developing the ultimately downscaled local interconnects for future electronic technologies.
This work was supported, in part, by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) contract 2018-NM-2796: One-Dimensional Single-Crystal van-der-Waals Metals: Ultimately-Downscaled Interconnects with Exceptional Current-Carrying Capacity and Reliability, and by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Emerging Frontiers of Research Initiative (EFRI) 2-DARE project: Novel Switching Phenomena in Atomic Heterostructures for Multifunctional Applications (NSF EFRI-1433395).
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