Low Schottky Barrier Black Phosphorus Field-Effect Devices with Ferromagnetic Tunnel Contacts

Journal article, 2015

Black phosphorus (BP) has been recently unveiled as a promising 2D direct bandgap semiconducting material. Here, ambipolar field-effect transistor behavior of nanolayers of BP with ferromagnetic tunnel contacts is reported. Using TiO2/Co contacts, a reduced Schottky barrier <50 meV, which can be tuned further by the gate voltage, is obtained. Eminently, a good transistor performance is achieved in the devices discussed here, with drain current modulation of four to six orders of magnitude and a mobility of μh ≈ 155 cm2 V−1 s−1 for hole conduction at room temperature. Magnetoresistance calculations using a spin diffusion model reveal that the source–drain contact resistances in the BP device can be tuned by gate voltage to an optimal range for injection and detection of spin-polarized holes. The results of the study demonstrate the prospect of BP nanolayers for efficient nanoelectronic and spintronic devices.