Planar nanoscale vacuum channel transistors based on resistive switching

Abstract

Resistance switching (RS) offers promising applications in a variety of areas. In particular, silicon oxide (SiOx) under RS can serve as electron sources in new types of miniature vacuum electron tubes. In this work, planar nanoscale vacuum channel transistors (NVCTs) with graphene electrodes and RS SiOx electron sources were developed. In each RS-NVCT, the resistance between the ground and the gate underwent high–low–high transitions, which resulted from formation and subsequent rupture of Si conducting filaments. Electrons were emitted from the post-reset Si filaments and the current received by the collector (IC) was well controlled by the gate voltage (VG). The transfer characteristics reveal that IC was quite sensitive to VG when RS occurred. With VG sweeping from 0 to −20 V, the obtained subthreshold swing (SS) of 76 mV/dec was quite close to the theoretical limit of the SS of a field effect transistor at room temperature (60 mV/dec). The largest ON/OFF ratio was of the order of 106. The output characteristics of the devices indicate that the dependence of IC on the collector voltage (VC) weakened at high VC values. These results demonstrate the application potential of RS-NVCTs as either switching devices or amplifiers.