CMOS-compatible Strain Engineering for High-Performance Monolayer Semiconductor Transistors

Strain engineering has played a key role in modern silicon electronics, having been introduced as a mobility booster in the 1990s and commercialized in the early 2000s. Achieving similar advances with two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors in a CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) compatible manner would radically improve the industrial viability of 2D transistors. Here, we show silicon nitride capping layers can impart strain to monolayer MoS2 transistors on conventional silicon substrates, enhancing their electrical performance with a low thermal budget (350 C), CMOS-compatible approach. Strained back-gated and dual-gated MoS2 transistors demonstrate median increases up to 60 improvements are found when both transistor channels and contacts are reduced to  200 nm, reaching saturation currents of 488 uA/um, higher than any previous reports at such short contact pitch. Simulations reveal that most benefits arise from tensile strain lowering the contact Schottky barriers, and that further reducing device dimensions (including contacts) will continue to offer increased strain and performance improvements.