Examining the Screening Limit of Field Effect Devices via the Metal–Insulator Transition

Authors

X. Hong, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
A. Posadas, Yale University
C. H. Ahn, Yale UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2005

Citation

Applied Physics Letters (2005) 86: 142501

Comments

Used by permission

Abstract

The electronic screening length, the distance over which an electric field is attenuated in a material, imposes a lower physical bound on the lateral size scaling of semiconductor field effect devices. Alternatives will be needed to achieve devices whose characteristic dimensions approach a nanometer. In this work, we demonstrate the atomic-scale nature of screening at high electron densities, using the polarization field of a ferroelectric oxide, Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃, to electrostatically modulate the metallicity of ultrathin manganite La_1−xSr_xMnO₃ (LSMO) films near the metal-insulator transition. Within the screening length, the transport characteristics of LSMO vary sharply at the scale of a single atomic layer.