Lanthanum Doping Enabling High Drain Current Modulation in a p-Type Tin Monoxide Thin-Film Transistor

Abstract

Effects of lanthanum (La) loading on the structural, optical, and electrical properties of tin monoxide (SnO) films were examined as a p-type semiconducting layer. La loading up to 1.9 atom % caused the texturing of the tetragonal SnO phase with a preferential orientation of (101), which was accompanied by the smoother surface morphology. Simultaneously, the incorporated La cation suppressed the formation of n-type SnO2 in the La-doped SnO film and widened its optical band gap. These variations allowed the 1.9 atom % La-loaded SnO film to have a high hole mobility and carrier density, compared with the La-free control SnO film. The superior semiconducting property was reflected in the p-type thin-film transistor (TFT). The control SnO TFTs exhibited the field-effect mobility (μSAT) and I ON/OFF ratio of 0.29 cm2 V–1 s–1 and 5.4 × 102, respectively. Enhancement in the μSAT value and I ON/OFF ratio was observed for the TFTs with the 1.9 atom % La-loaded SnO channel layer: they were improved to 1.2 cm2 V–1 s–1 and 7.3 × 103, respectively. The reason for this superior performance was discussed on the basis of smoother morphology, suppression of disproportionation conversion from Sn2+ to Sn + Sn4+, and reduced gap-state density.

Switching Mechanism behind the Device Operation Mode in SnO‐TFT

“…The p-channel TFT performance is also slightly degraded with the on-to-off current of ≈10 4 and μ sat of 1.0 ± 0.3 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , but the observed TFT characteristics are nearly comparable to the most of reported p-channel SnO-TFTs. [14,18,19] Since the hole mobility and hole density are almost unchanged after the weak etching (See Table 1), the dramatic variation of TFT characteristics can be mainly attributed to the change of back-channel defects. Therefore, the absence of ambipolarity in the most reported p-channel SnO-TFTs is due to the high-density back-channel defects.…”

Stable CuO/La2Sn2O7 catalysts for soot combustion: Study on the monolayer dispersion behavior of CuO over a La2Sn2O7 pyrochlore support

“…Fig. 2(b) shows the Sn XPS scan, which contains two Sn 3d peaks at around 494.6 and 486.3 eV, which are assignable to Sn 3d3/2 and Sn 3d5/2 of Sn 4+ in the La2Sn2O7 support [45,46]. In contrast, as shown in Fig.…”

Alternative Lone‐Pair ns2‐Cation‐Based Semiconductors beyond Lead Halide Perovskites for Optoelectronic Applications

“…In addition, the alkali metal and lanthanide series were also reported to be conducive to the carrier concentration and emission, respectively. [ 35,104,163 ]…”