Scaling nanoribbon transistors with monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides
Journal article, 2026
Nanoscale transistors demand aggressive scaling of all channel dimensions-length, width and thickness. Two-dimensional semiconductors (2DS) provide the ultimate thickness limit, yet good device performance has largely remained restricted to micrometre-wide channels. Here we report monolayer 2DS nanoribbon transistors with both n- and p-type operation, fabricated by a top-down multipatterning process that includes 'anchored' contacts to limit nanoribbon delamination. This approach achieves channel lengths and widths down to 25-30 nm, with minimal edge degradation confirmed through nanoscale characterization, including tip-enhanced photoluminescence. Integrated with thin high-kappa gate dielectrics, the devices deliver on-state currents up to 560, 420 and 130 & micro;A & micro;m-1 at a drain-to-source voltage of 1 V for n-type MoS2, n-type WS2 and p-type WSe2, respectively. These results exceed prior single-gated 2DS nanoribbon reports, with WS2 improving by more than two orders of magnitude, even for normally off (enhancement-mode) operation. Overall, these findings position top-down patterned 2DS nanoribbons as promising building blocks for future nanosheet transistor architectures.
Author
Tara Pena
Stanford University
Anton Persson
Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics
Andrey Krayev
HORIBA
Ashildur Fridriksdottir
Stanford University
Haotian Su
Stanford University
Yuan-Mau Lee
Stanford University
Young Suh Song
Stanford University
Kathryn Neilson
Stanford University
Zhepeng Zhang
Stanford University
Anh Tuan Hoang
Stanford University
Jerry A. Yang
Stanford University
Lauren Hoang
Stanford University
Shan X. Wang
Stanford University
Andrew J. Mannix
Stanford University
Paul C. McIntyre
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Stanford University
Eric Pop
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Stanford University
Nature Nanotechnology
1748-3387 (ISSN) 1748-3395 (eISSN)
Vol. In PressSubject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1038/s41565-026-02161-w
PubMed
42230814