Enhanced Performance of WS₂ Field-Effect Transistor through Mono and Bilayer h-BN Tunneling Contacts

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are of great interest owing to their unique properties. However, TMD materials face two major challenges that limit their practical applications: contact resistance and surface contamination. Herein, a strategy to overcome these problems by inserting a monolayer of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) at the chromium (Cr) and tungsten disulfide (WS₂) interface is introduced. Electrical behaviors of direct metal–semiconductor (MS) and metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) contacts with mono- and bilayer h-BN in a four-layer WS₂ field-effect transistor (FET) are evaluated under vacuum from 77 to 300 K. The performance of the MIS contacts differs based on the metal work function when using Cr and indium (In). The contact resistance is significantly reduced by approximately ten times with MIS contacts compared with that for MS contacts. An electron mobility up to ≈115 cm² V^-1 s^-1 at 300 K is achieved with the insertion of monolayer h-BN, which is approximately ten times higher than that with MS contacts. The mobility and contact resistance enhancement are attributed to Schottky barrier reduction when h-BN is introduced between Cr and WS₂. The dependence of the tunneling mechanisms on the h-BN thickness is investigated by extracting the tunneling barrier parameters.