Transforming a Tungsten Ditelluride Monolayer into a Transistor

In the world of silicon semiconductors, the process of creating transistors and similar structures involves various rounds of modifications and additions to create the requisite functional layers. Transforming a Tungsten Ditelluride Monolayer into a Transistor. A less involved approach would simply create these structures in-situ, with research the past years having focused on transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers to do exactly this.

Reported (paywalled, Phys.org summary) on creating transistors in-situ in a tungsten ditelluride (WTe 2) monolayer. By selectively changing parts of the top layer into tungsten oxide (WO x) as an insulator and other sections into n-type WS 2 and p-type WSe 2 the researchers were able to create functional MOSFETs, without the normally requisite grafting on of different materials. An obvious advantage of this is that this can be done at an atomic scale, potentially achieving densities significantly higher than with industry standard silicon semiconductor technology.

WTe 2 is not the only TMDC that could be viable here, of course, with other researchers investigating the use of MoSe 2 for a similar purpose, as in this research by [N. This being the creation of 2D semiconductors, referring to the thin layers of these monolayer TMDCs, along with potentially other materials such as graphene.