Room-temperature field effect transistors with metallic ultrathin TiN-based channel prepared by atomic layer delta doping and deposition.

Metallic channel transistors have been proposed as the candidate for sub-10 nm technology node. However, the conductivity modulation in metallic channels can only be observed at low temperatures usually below 100 K. In this study, room-temperature field effect and modulation of the channel resistance was achieved in the metallic channel transistors, in which the oxygen-doped TiN ultrathin-body channels were prepared by the atomic layer delta doping and deposition (AL3D) with precise control of the channel thickness and electron concentration. The decrease of channel thickness leads to the reduction in electron concentration and the blue shift of absorption spectrum, which can be explained by the onset of quantum confinement effect. The increase of oxygen incorporation results in the increase of interband gap energy, also giving rise to the decrease in electron concentration and the blue shift of absorption spectrum. Because of the significant decrease in electron concentration, the screening effect was greatly suppressed in the metallic channel. Therefore, the channel modulation by the gate electric field was achieved at room temperature due to the quantum confinement and suppressed screening effect with the thickness down to 4.8 nm and the oxygen content up to 35% in the oxygen-doped TiN ultrathin-body channel.