Congratulations to Luodan Hu for publishing a journal cover paper in the well-known journal Nanoscale

Congratulations to Luodan Hu for publishing a cover journal paper entitled "Low-temperature supercritical dehydroxylation for achieving an ultra-low subthreshold swing of thin-fi lm transistors" in Nanoscale magazine

Article web link：https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/NR/D0NR08208B

Introduction to the article:

Thin-film transistors (TFTs) have been widely used in increasingly advanced displays. However, it remains a challenge to overcome the poor subthreshold swing of TFTs in fast switching and high-speed applications. Here, we provide a solution to the aforementioned challenges through supercritical dehydroxylation, which combines low-temperature, environmentally friendly supercritical fluid technology with CaCl2 treatment. For the first time, embedded structures of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (a-IGZO) TFTs with double-layer high-k dielectrics comprising Ta2O5 and SiO2 layers were fabricated. The subthreshold swing of fabricated TFTs treated with supercritical dehydroxylation was optimized to an ultralow value of 72.7 mV dec-1. In addition, other key indicators such as threshold voltage, on/off ratio, and field-effect mobility were improved after supercritical dehydroxylation. The bandgap of the gate dielectric material increases due to supercritical dehydroxylation verified by the current conduction mechanism. In addition, extensive material analysis further confirmed that the primary dehydration reaction can effectively repair defects introduced in device fabrication due to supercritical dehydroxylation. Ultralow subthreshold swing with optimized electrical properties can be achieved by low-temperature supercritical dehydroxylation treatment, making it a promising potential for realizing ultrafast and low-power electronic devices.