Tunable Negative Differential Resistance in van der Waals Heterostructures at Room Temperature by Tailoring the Interface

Vertically stacked two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, used to obtain homogeneity and band steepness at interfaces, exhibit promising performance for band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) devices. Esaki tunnel diodes based on vdW heterostructures, however, yield poor current density and peak-to-valley ratio, inferior to those of three-dimensional materials. Here, we report the negative differential resistance (NDR) behavior in a WSe₂/SnSe₂ heterostructure system at room temperature and demonstrate that heterointerface control is one of the keys to achieving high device performance by constructing WSe₂/SnSe₂ heterostructures in inert gas environments. While devices fabricated in ambient conditions show poor device performance due to the observed oxidation layer at the interface, devices fabricated in inert gas exhibit extremely high peak current density up to 1460 mA/mm², 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than reported vdW heterostructure-based tunnel diodes, with a peak-to-valley ratio of more than 4 at room temperature. Besides, Pd/WSe₂ contact in our device possesses a much higher Schottky barrier than previously reported Cr/WSe₂ contact in the WSe₂/SnSe₂ device, which suppresses the thermionic emission current to less than the BTBT current level, enabling the observation of NDR at room temperature. Diode behavior can be further modulated by controlling the electrostatic doping and the tunneling barrier as well.