We explore the electrical characteristics of TiS 3 nanowire field-effect transistor (FETs), over the wide temperature range from 3 to 350 K. These nanomaterials have a quasi-one-dimensional (1D) crystal structure and exhibit a gate-controlled metal−insulator transition (MIT) in their transfer curves. Their room-temperature mobility is ∼20−30 cm 2 /(V s), 2 orders of magnitude smaller than predicted previously, a result that we explain quantitatively in terms of the influence of polar-optical phonon scattering in these materials. In the insulating state (<∼220 K), the transfer curves exhibit unusual mesoscopic fluctuations and a current suppression near zero bias that is common to charge-density wave (CDW) systems. The fluctuations have a nonmonotonic temperature dependence and wash out at a temperature close to that of the bulk MIT, suggesting they may be a feature of quantum interference in the CDW state. Overall, our results demonstrate that quasi-1D TiS 3 nanostructures represent a viable candidate for FET realization and that their functionality is influenced by complex phenomena.

We study temperature dependent (200 – 400 K) dielectric current leakage in high-quality, epitaxial chromia films, synthesized on various conductive substrates (Pd, Pt and V2O3). We find that trap-assisted space-charge limited conduction is the dominant source of electrical leakage in the films, and that the density and distribution of charge traps within them is strongly dependent upon the choice of the underlying substrate. Pd-based chromia is found to exhibit leakage consistent with the presence of deep, discrete traps, a characteristic that is related to the known properties of twinning defects in the material. The Pt- and V2O3-based films, in contrast, show behavior typical of insulators with shallow, exponentially-distributed traps. The highest resistivity is obtained for chromia fabricated on V2O3 substrates, consistent with a lower total trap density in these films. Our studies suggest that chromia thin films formed on V2O3 substrates are a promising candidate for next-generation spintronics.

We use transient electrical measurements to investigate the details of self-heating and charge trapping in graphene transistors encapsulated in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and operated under strongly nonequilibrium conditions. Relative to more standard devices fabricated on SiO 2 substrates, encapsulation is shown to lead to an enhanced immunity to charge trapping, the influence of which is only apparent under the combined influence of strong gate and drain electric fields. Although the precise source of the trapping remains to be determined, one possibility is that the strong gate field may lower the barriers associated with native defects in the h-BN, allowing them to mediate the capture of energetic carriers from the graphene channel. Self-heating in these devices is identified through the observation of time-dependent variations of the current in graphene and is found to be described by a time constant consistent with expectations for nonequilibrium phonon conduction into the dielectric layers of the device. Overall, our results suggest that h-BN-encapsulated graphene devices provide an excellent system for implementations in which operation under strongly nonequilibrium conditions is desired.

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It has been nearly a century since the original mechanism for charge density wave (CDW) formation was suggested by Peierls. Since then, the term has come to describe several related concepts in condensed matter physics, having their origin in either the electron–phonon or electron–electron interaction. The vast majority of CDW literature deals with systems that are metallic, where discussions of mechanisms related to the Fermi surface are valid. Recently, it has been suggested that semiconducting systems such as TiS3 and TiSe2 exhibit behavior related to CDWs. In such cases, the origin of the behavior is more subtle and intimately tied to electron–electron interactions. We introduce the different classifications of CDW systems that have been proposed and discuss work on the group IV transition metal trichalcogenides (TMTs) (ZrTe3, HfTe3, TiTe3, and TiS3), which are an exciting and emergent material system whose members exhibit quasi-one-dimensional properties. TMTs are van der Waals materials and can be readily studied in the few-layer limit, opening new avenues to manipulating collective states. We emphasize the semiconducting compound TiS3 and suggest how it can be classified based on available data. Although we can conjecture on the origin of the CDW in TiS3, further measurements are required to properly characterize it.