Fabrication of high-performance p-type thin film transistors using atomic-layer-deposited SnO films

Abstract

Here, we demonstrate high-performance p-type thin film transistors (TFTs) with a SnO channel layer grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD). The performance of the SnO TFTs relies on hole carriers and defects in SnO and near the back-channel surface of SnO as well as the quality of the gate dielectric/SnO interface. The growth of SnO films at a high temperature of 210 °C effectively suppresses the hole carrier concentration, leading to a high on-current/off-current (I_on/I_off) ratio. In addition, the SnO films grown at 210 °C achieve high field effect mobility (μ_FE) compared with the SnO films grown at lower temperatures because of their large grain size and lower impurity contents. However, the SnO films grown at 210 °C still contain defects and hole carriers, especially near the back-channel surface. The post-deposition process – back-channel surface passivation with ALD-grown Al₂O₃ followed by post-deposition annealing at 250 °C – considerably alleviates the defects and hole carriers, resulting in superior TFT performance (I_on/I_off: 2 × 10⁶, subthreshold swing: 1.8 V dec⁻¹, μ_FE: ∼1 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹). We expect that the SnO ALD and subsequent process will provide a new opportunity for producing high-performance p-type oxide TFTs.