Scaling of MoS2 Transistors and Inverters to Sub-10 nm Channel Length with High Performance

Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors such as monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) are promising building blocks for ultrascaled field effect transistors (FETs), benefiting from their atomic thickness, dangling-bond-free flat surface, and excellent gate controllability. However, despite great prospects, the fabrication of 2D ultrashort channel FETs with high performance and uniformity remains a challenge. Here, we report a self-encapsulated heterostructure undercut technique for the fabrication of sub-10 nm channel length MoS₂ FETs. The fabricated 9 nm channel MoS₂ FETs exhibit superior performances compared with sub-15 nm channel length including the competitive on-state current density of 734/433 μA/μm at V_DS = 2/1 V, record-low DIBL of ∼50 mV/V, and superior on/off ratio of 3 × 10⁷ and low subthreshold swing of ∼100 mV/dec. Furthermore, the ultrashort channel MoS₂ FETs fabricated by this new technique show excellent homogeneity. Thanks to this, we scale the monolayer inverter down to sub-10 nm channel length.