Transferred van der Waals metal electrodes for sub-1-nm MoS2 vertical transistors

Vertical transistors—in which the channel length is determined by the thickness of the semiconductor—are of interest in the development of next-generation electronic devices. However, short-channel vertical devices are difficult to fabricate, because the high-energy metallization process typically results in damage to the contact region. Here we show that molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) vertical transistors with channel lengths down to one atomic layer can be created using a low-energy van der Waals metal integration technique. The approach uses prefabricated metal electrodes that are mechanically laminated and transferred on top of MoS2/graphene vertical heterostructures, leading to vertical field-effect transistors with on–off ratios of 26 and 103 for channel lengths of 0.65 nm and 3.60 nm, respectively. Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and low-temperature electrical measurements, we show that the improved electrical performance is the result of a high-quality metal–semiconductor interface, with minimized direct tunnelling current and Fermi-level pinning effect. The approach can also be extended to other layered materials (tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide), resulting in sub-3-nm p-type and n-type vertical transistors. Molybdenum disulfide vertical transistors with channel lengths down to one atomic layer can be made with metal electrodes using a mechanical van der Waals transfer process that leads to a high-quality metal–semiconductor interface.