Negative Capacitance for Stabilizing the Logic State in a Tunnel Field-Effect Transistor

Ferroelectric negative capacitance field-effect transistors, or FE-NCFETs, are promising device architectures for achieving improved performance in terms of hysteresis, on-off ratio, and power consumption. The study investigates the influence of negative capacitance (NC) on the transfer characteristics of van der Waals field-effect transistors below and above a critical voltage (V-th) on the heterophase of the CuInP2S6 (CIPS) gate ferroelectric. Notably, a less pronounced NC resulting from the spatial distribution of the ferroelectric and paraelectric phases plays a crucial role in stabilizing n-channel conductance by dual gate modulation. This results in the emergence of a nonvolatile logic state between the two binary states typical of conventional tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs). Concerned study proposed NCTFETs based on ferroionic crystals as promising devices for generating a stable logic state below the coercive voltage. In addition, tunneling and voltage pinning effects play a key role for enhancement of the transistor's on-off ratio.