Sub-5 nm Ultrathin In2O3 Transistors for High-Performance and Low-Power Electronic Applications.

Ultrathin oxide semiconductors are promising candidates for back-end-of-line (BEOL) compatible transistors and monolithic three-dimensional integration. Experimentally, ultrathin indium oxide (In2O3) field-effect transistors (FETs) with thicknesses down to 0.4 nm exhibit an extremely high drain current (104 µA/µm) and transconductance (4000 µS/µm). Here, we employ ab initio quantum transport simulation to investigate the performance limit of sub-5 nm gate length (Lg) ultrathin In2O3 FETs. Based on the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) criteria for high-performance (HP) devices, the scaling limit of ultrathin In2O3 FETs can reach 2 nm in terms of on-state current, delay time, and power dissipation. The wide bandgap nature of ultrathin In2O3 (3.0 eV) renders it a suitable candidate for ITRS low-power (LP) electronics with Lg down to 3 nm. Notably, both the HP and LP ultrathin In2O3 FETs exhibit superior energy-delay products as compared to those of other common 2D semiconductors such as monolayer MoS2 and MoTe2. These findings unveil the potential of ultrathin In2O3 in HP and LP nanoelectronic device applications.

Compositional effects on structural, electronic, elastic, piezoelectric and dielectric properties of GaInN alloys: a first-principles study.

We conduct a comprehensive theoretical analysis of wurtzite GaxIn1-xN ternary alloys, focusing on their structural, electronic, elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric properties through rigorous first-principles calculations. Our investigation systematically explores the influence of varying Ga composition (x = 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) on the alloy properties. Remarkably, we observe a distinctive non-linear correlation between the band gap and Ga concentration, attributable to unique slopes in the absolute positions of the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum with respect to Ga concentration. Our effective band structure analysis reveals the meticulous preservation of Bloch characters near band extrema, minimizing charge carrier scattering. Furthermore, we scrutinize deviations from linear Vegard-like dependence in elastic, piezoelectric, and dielectric constants. Additionally, our calculations encompass various optical properties, including absorption coefficient, reflectivity, refractive index, energy loss function, and extinction coefficient. We analyze their trends with photon energy, providing valuable insights into the optical behavior of GaxIn1-xN alloys. Our results, in excellent agreement with available experimental data, significantly contribute to a deeper understanding of the alloys' electronic properties. This study offers valuable insights that may illuminate potential applications of GaxIn1-xN alloys in diverse technological fields.

Lyophilized mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccines with long-term stability and high antigenicity against SARS-CoV-2.

Advanced mRNA vaccines play vital roles against SARS-CoV-2. However, most current mRNA delivery platforms need to be stored at -20 °C or -70 °C due to their poor stability, which severely restricts their availability. Herein, we develop a lyophilization technique to prepare SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccines with long-term thermostability. The physiochemical properties and bioactivities of lyophilized vaccines showed no change at 25 °C over 6 months, and the lyophilized SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines could elicit potent humoral and cellular immunity whether in mice, rabbits, or rhesus macaques. Furthermore, in the human trial, administration of lyophilized Omicron mRNA vaccine as a booster shot also engendered strong immunity without severe adverse events, where the titers of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron BA.1/BA.2/BA.4 were increased by at least 253-fold after a booster shot following two doses of the commercial inactivated vaccine, CoronaVac. This lyophilization platform overcomes the instability of mRNA vaccines without affecting their bioactivity and significantly improves their accessibility, particularly in remote regions.

Phase transition and topological transistors based on monolayer Na3Bi nanoribbons.

Recently, a topological-to-trivial insulator quantum-phase transition induced by an electric field has been experimentally reported in monolayer (ML) and bilayer (BL) Na3Bi. A narrow ML/BL Na3Bi nanoribbon is necessary to fabricate a high-performance topological transistor. By using the density functional theory method, we found that wider ML Na3Bi nanoribbons (>7 nm) are topological insulators, featured by insulating bulk states and dissipationless metallic edge states. However, a bandgap is opened for extremely narrow ML Na3Bi nanoribbons (<4 nm) due to the quantum confinement effect, and its size increases with the decrease in width. In the topological insulating ML Na3Bi nanoribbons, a bandgap is opened in the metallic edge states under an external displacement electric field, with strength (∼1.0 V Å-1) much smaller than the reopened displacement electric field in ML Na3Bi (3 V Å-1). An ultrashort ML Na3Bi zigzag nanoribbon topological transistor switched by the electrical field was calculated using first-principles quantum transport simulation. It shows an on/off current/conductance ratio of 4-71 and a large on-state current of 1090 µA µm-1. Therefore, a proof of the concept of topological transistors is presented.

First-principles simulation of monolayer hydrogen passivated Bi2O2S2-metal interfaces.

Monolayer (ML) MoS2 is one of the most extensively studied two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors. However, it suffers from low carrier mobility and pervasive Schottky contact with metal electrodes. 2D semiconductor Bi2O2S, a sulfur analogue of 2D Bi2O2Se, has been prepared recently. ML fully hydrogen-passivated Bi2O2S2 (Bi2O2S2H2) posseses a comparable band gap (1.92 eV) with ML MoS2 (1.8 eV), but probably has a better device performance than ML MoS2. Based on the density functional theory, the electron and hole mobilities of ML Bi2O2S2H2 at 300 K are calculated to be 16 447-26 699 and 264-968 cm2 V-1 s-1, respectively. Then we firstly characterize the contact properties of ML half hydrogen-passivated Bi2O2S2 (Bi2O2S2H) with four bulk metal electrodes (Ti, Sc, Pd, and Pt) based on ab initio quantum transport simulation. In the lateral direction, a p-type Schottky contact is found in Pd and Pt electrodes, and the corresponding hole Schottky barrier heights (SBHs) are 0.54 and 0.99 eV, respectively. Remarkably, a coveted n-type Ohmic contact appears in Sc and Ti electrodes. Finally, the current on-off ratio of the ML hydrogen-passivated Bi2O2S2 field effect transistor with a Ti electrode reaches 105. Hence, the good intrinsic properties, contact properties, and large switching ability put ML hydrogen-passivated Bi2O2S2 in the rank of potential channel candidates for post-silicon era field effect transistors.

Sub-5 nm monolayer black phosphorene tunneling transistors.

The successful fabrication of sub-5 nm 2D MoS2 field-effect transistors (FETs) announces the approaching post-silicon era. It is possible for tunneling field-effect transistors (TFETs) based on monolayer black phosphorene (ML BP) to work well in the sub-5 nm region because of its moderate direct band gap, anisotropic electronic properties and high carrier mobility. We simulate the device performance limit of the ML BP TFETs at the sub-5 nm scale using ab initio quantum transport calculations. We predict that the on-state currents (I on) of the sub-5 nm ML BP TFETs will exceed those of the ML WTe2 TFETs, which possess the highest I on among the transition-metal dichalcogenide family. In particular, the I on of the ML BP TFETs can fulfill the 2028 requirements of the international technology roadmap for semiconductors (ITRS) for the high-performance (HP) devices until the gate length is scaled down to 4 nm, while the delay times and power dissipations always surpass the 2028 requirements of the ITRS HP devices significantly in the whole sub-5 nm region.

NH3 assisted photoreduction and N-doping of graphene oxide for high performance electrode materials in supercapacitors.

Nitrogen-doped graphene was synthesized by simple photoreduction of graphene oxide (GO) deposited on nickel foam under NH3 atmosphere. The combination of photoreduction and NH3 not only reduces the GO in a shorter time but also induces nitrogen doping easily. The nitrogen doped content of N-rGO@NF reaches a high of 5.99 at% with 15 min of irradiation. The nitrogen-doped graphene deposited on Ni foam (N-rGO@NF) can be directly used as an electrode for supercapacitors, without any conductive agents and polymer binders. In the electrochemical measurement, N-rGO@NF displays remarkable electrochemical performance. In particular, the N-rGO@NF irradiated for 45 min at a high current density of 92.3 A g(-1) retained about 77% (190.4 F g(-1)) of its initial specific capacitance (247.1 F g(-1) at 0.31 A g(-1)). Furthermore, the stable voltage window could be extended to 2.0 and 1.5 V by using Li2SO4 and a mixed Li2SO4/KOH electrolyte, and the maximum energy density was high up to 32.6 and 21.2 Wh kg(-1), respectively. The results show that compared to Li2SO4, a mixed electrolyte (Li2SO4/KOH) more efficiently balances the relationship between the high energy densities and high power densities.

Direct formation of reduced graphene oxide and 3D lightweight nickel network composite foam by hydrohalic acids and its application for high-performance supercapacitors.

Here, a novel graphene composite foam with 3D lightweight continuous and interconnected nickel network was successfully synthesized by hydroiodic (HI) acid using nickel foam as substrate template. The graphene had closely coated on the backbone of the 3D nickel conductive network to form nickel network supported composite foam without any polymeric binder during the HI reduction of GO process, and the nickel conductive network can be maintained even in only a small amount of nickel with 1.1 mg/cm(2) and had replaced the traditional current collector nickel foam (35 mg/cm(2)). In the electrochemical measurement, a supercapacitor device based on the 3D nickel network and graphene composite foam exhibited high rate capability of 100 F/g at 0.5 A/g and 86.7 F/g at 62.5 A/g, good cycle stability with capacitance retention of 95% after 2000 cycles, low internal resistance (1.68 Ω), and excellent flexible properties. Furthermore, the gravimetric capacitance (calculated using the total mass of the electrode) was high up to 40.9 F/g. Our work not only demonstrates high-quality graphene/nickel composite foam, but also provides a universal route for the rational design of high performance of supercapacitors.

Facile synthesis of nickel network supported three-dimensional graphene gel as a lightweight and binder-free electrode for high rate performance supercapacitor application.

Here we report a simple strategy to prepare three-dimensional graphene gel coated on nickel foam for supercapacitor applications by a simple 'dipping and drying' process. The supercapacitors based on three-dimensional graphene gel (G-gel@NF-1) exhibited high rate capability of 152 F g(-1) at 0.36 A g(-1) and 107 F g(-1) at 90.9 A g(-1), good cycle stability with capacitance retention of 89% after 2000 cycles and low internal resistance (0.58 Ω). Furthermore, a flexible electrode (G-gel@NF-2) was obtained by etching most of the nickel foam but maintains the conductive backbone of the nickel foam, which greatly reduces the total mass of the electrode (can be reduced from 30 mg cm(-2) to less than 5 mg cm(-2)), and can be compressed from a thickness of 1 mm to ∼30 µm. With the aid of a conductive network composed of a small amount of nickel, G-gel@NF-2 still has good performance in high rate capability and displays excellent flexible properties. The specific capacitance when the mass density of the electrode was only 5.4 mg cm(-2) still reached ∼115 F g(-1). This strategy can improve the rate capability performance, greatly reduce the mass of the electrode, and lower the fabrication cost of supercapacitors.