Structural and electrical characterisation of PtS from H2S-converted Pt

A manufacturing-compatible 300 mm chamber reactor for atomic layer deposition or chemical vapour deposition, and pre-fitted with H 2 /H 2 S gases that can be uniformly delivered to the wafer surface, is employed to thermally convert Pt to PtS in a H 2 /H 2 S gaseous atmosphere for 7 hours at a chamber temperature of 550 degrees C. Prior to conversion, platinum layers 5 nm thick are uniformly deposited by electron beam evaporation onto -30 nm of amorphous aluminium sesquioxide deposited by atomic layer deposition on, (a) p -type silicon, and (b) c-plane sapphire. Structural characterisation is performed by high-resolution cross-sectional transmission-electron microscopy, scanning-electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, confirming the formation of continuous films of polycrystalline platinum monosulfide (PtS) with a -15 nm thickness. Electrical characterisation is performed by 4-point resistivity and Hall-effect transport measurements on van der Pauw structures of PtS on aluminium sesquioxide on c-plane sapphire, and by back-gate junctionless MOSFET device measurements for PtS on aluminium sesquioxide on p -type silicon, showing that PtS behaves as a semiconductor with a mobility of -16 cm 2 /V.s and with an n -type carrier concentration of -1.2 x 10 15 cm -3 . Advanced commercial-grade Sentaurus simulations, alongside density-functional theory calculations, agree well with the experimental observations and suggest a large bandgap of -1.58 eV may be possible that could lead to a low off-current and a high I on /I off ratio, suggesting that PtS may be an advanced material candidate for future device integration with CMOS and for 3D integration applications in Beyond-CMOS and More-than-Moore technologies. (c) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Automated summary

A manufacturing-compatible 300 mm chamber reactor was used to thermally convert Pt to PtS in a H2/H2S gaseous atmosphere. Structural characterization confirmed the formation of continuous films of polycrystalline platinum monosulfide (PtS) with a thickness of approximately 15 nm. Electrical characterization showed that PtS behaves as a semiconductor with a mobility of -16 cm2/V.s and an n-type carrier concentration of -1.2 x 10^15 cm^-3, indicating its potential as an advanced material for future device integration applications.