Performance Improvement of HfO2/SrTiO3 Hetero-Oxide Transistors Using Argon Bombardment.

An effective interface engineering method is developed to improve performance of SrTiO3-based hetero-oxide transistors. HfO2/SrTiO3 hetero-oxide transistors made on argon ions bombarded SrTiO3 surfaces show eight times increase in drive currents and more than five times increase in mobility when compared with the un-bombarded HfO2/SrTiO3 transistors. The improvement is attributed to the Fermi-level shift as the results of the bombardment. These HfO2/SrTiO3-based nMOSFETs show field-effect electron mobility up to 4.2 cm^2/Vs, which is among the best results ever reported. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]