Gigahertz-frequency operation of a LaAlO3/SrTiO3-based nanotransistor

P. Irvin, M. Huang, F. J. Wong, T. D. Sanders, Y. Suzuki, and J. Levy

Citation: Applied Physics Letters 102, 103113 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4795725
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795725
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APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 102, 103113 (2013)

Gigahertz-frequency operation of a LaAlO3/SrTiO3-based nanotransistor

P. Irvin,1 M. Huang,1 F. J. Wong,2 T. D. Sanders,2 Y. Suzuki,2 and J. Levy1,a)
1

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA
Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

(Received 11 January 2013; accepted 5 March 2013; published online 15 March 2013)
Nanoscale control of the metal-insulator transition of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface with a
conductive-atomic force microscope (c-AFM) technique has enabled a variety of electrical and
photonic device concepts. While previous devices have demonstrated sub-10 nm critical features,
information processing applications also require high operating speeds. Here we show that a
sketched nanoscale transistor (SketchFET) can operate at frequencies in excess of 2 GHz. The
combination of high speed and high conductance with a small footprint make these devices and
C 2013 American
this platform attractive for sub-10 nm computing and storage architectures. V
Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4795725]
As Si-based information technologies reach fundamental
size limitations, new approaches to nanoelectronic materials
and devices are being considered. Although explicit figures
of merit depend on the specific device and application, it is
generally desirable for devices to be small, fast, highly
conducting, and switchable with large on/off ratios. It is
challenging to find new candidate materials that offer
improvements over silicon in all of these respects.
The emergent properties found at oxide interfaces have
received much attention in recent years.1 In particular, the
interface between insulators LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 was found to
be conducting2 when the LaAlO3 layer thickness3 exceeded a
certain critical value (dc  3 unit cells). At this critical thickness, the interface can be reversibly switched between insulating and conducting states by applying external electric fields.3
Local control of the metal-insulator transition using a conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) technique can reversibly create nanoscale structures that are smaller than 2 nm (Refs.
4 and 5). Furthermore, this technique has been used to make a
variety of sketch-based nanoscale devices including isolated
conducting islands with potential memory applications,4 transistors (SketchFETs),5,6 diodes,7 and photodetectors.8
Here we characterize the operation of LaAlO3/SrTiO3based SketchFETs at frequencies that extend into the GHz
range. Three unit cells of LaAlO3 are grown on a TiO2-terminated SrTiO3 substrate using pulsed laser deposition
(PLD)9,10 with in situ high pressure reflection high energy
electron diffraction (RHEED).11 Electrical contact is made
directly to the interface by etching 25 nm-deep trenches into
the SrTiO3 and filling with Au on a Ti adhesion layer.
Nanostructures are created using a positively biased c-AFM
probe, Vtip > 0 V (Figure 1(a), inset); the same structures can
be modified or erased with a negatively biased probe,
Vtip < 0 V. Typical write and erase voltages are 10 and
10 V, respectively. To create a SketchFET device, we first
write three funnel-shaped virtual electrodes that serve as
low-resistance leads to the SketchFET device. Nanowires of
width ww  5 nm are then written from the virtual electrodes
to make the final SketchFET structure consisting of a sourcedrain wire of width ww with gap of width ww and a perpendicular
a)

jlevy@pitt.edu

0003-6951/2013/102(10)/103113/3/$30.00

gate wire a distance wG from the source-drain channel. In the

devices presented here, the distance between the source-drain
virtual electrodes and gate virtual electrode and the gap is 3
and 2 lm, respectively. We present results from three devices:
two SketchFETs with wG 20 nm and 60 nm and one open
circuit device consisting of a blank LaAlO3/SrTiO3 sample
surface without an AFM-patterned device.
Initial characterization is performed by measuring from
the drain electrode the DC current iDC as a function of source
and gate biases, VS and VG , respectively (Figure 1). When
VG is tuned between approximately 2 V and 4 V, the conduction is zero (OFF state). When VG is tuned below
approximately 2 V or above 4 V, current begins to flow
and the device is considered to be in the ON state. The
magnitude of the current collected from the drain electrode
increases with increasing VS in the ON state regime. While a
maximum current of 200 nA is presented for the biasing
conditions and devices studied here, other characterized
SketchFETs have supported up to 1 lA of current with no
noticeable device degradation.
To evaluate the high-frequency response of SketchFET
devices, we employed a heterodyne circuit12 in which the
SketchFET device functions as a frequency mixer, shown
schematically in Figure 2(a). Two identical phase-locked RF
generators (Marconi 2024) independently drive the source
and gate electrodes (analogous to a frequency mixers RF
and LO ports) with continuous-wave signals at frequencies f
and f df , respectively. Bias tees are used to supply a DC
bias to both source and gate electrodes. The nonlinear drain
current inl
D (i.e., the IF port) is measured by a lock-in amplifier at the difference frequency df and quantifies the switching performance of the transistor at frequency f . To measure
inl
D with phase sensitivity, df can be actively derived by mixing the outputs of the RF generators with a commercial frequency mixer. A typical value of df is 977 Hz, while f is
swept between 1 MHz and 2.4 GHz. We are limited to a maximum f of 2.4 GHz by the RF generators. Because no signals
with frequency components at df are sent to the sample, this
is a background-free measurement. In other words, only
when the SketchFET has a nonlinear response and operates
as a frequency mixer will there be a signal at frequency df at
the drain electrode.

102, 103113-1

C 2013 American Institute of Physics

V

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Irvin et al.

FIG. 1. SketchFET writing at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. (a) Inset: Buried

Au electrodes (shown in yellow) are directly contacted to the interface. A
positive voltage applied to the c-AFM probe will locally switch the interface
to a conducting state (shown in green), while a negative voltage will locally
restore the insulating state. The DC current (iD ) from the drain electrode is
plotted as a function of source (VS ) and gate (VG ) bias, demonstrating the
ability to change the channel conductance between on and off states. (b)
Intensity plot of logjiD j vs VS and VG . All data is from SketchFET with
wG 20 nm.

The nonlinear response inl

D is measured as a function of
RF frequency f and DC biases VS and VG. Typical frequencyresponse curves for all three devices are shown in Figure
2(b). Each SketchFET device exhibits a flat response as a
function of increasing f up to a critical value (f3dB;20nm
 1:6 GHz, f3dB;60nm  700 MHz), after which inl
D begins to
fall off rapidly. The higher 3 dB point of the 20 nm device
compared to the 60 nm device could be related to a reduced
parasitic capacitance in the smaller device. The presence of
several sharp resonant features in inl
D at some frequencies are
believed to be associated with impedance mismatch with the
device and the overall small nature of the signals involved.
A heterodyne measurement of a blank oxide interface canvas results in a signal similar to a SketchFET with large, negative gate bias (off state). The blank canvas exhibits no

Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 103113 (2013)

FIG. 2. SketchFET frequency response. (a) Electrical schematic of mixing

heterodyne experiment. The source electrode is driven at frequency f plus
DC bias VS while the gate is driven at frequency f df plus DC bias VG .
The drain current inl
D is measured with a lock-in amplifier at frequency f . (b)
Nonlinear current inl
D at the difference frequency df is plotted as a function
of f for 3 devices with different gate lengths: wG 20 nm, wG 60 nm, and
wG ! 1 (open circuit). VS 5 V, VG 7 V. (c) inl
D is plotted as a function of f and gate bias VG . VS 5 V, wG 20 nm.

bias dependence. We also note that the output power of the

device is quite small due to its nanoscale size: we estimate
the transmission attenuation to be greater than 320 dB.
Direct measurement of transmission and reflection through
the device falls below even the most sensitive network
analyzer.
The DC bias voltages applied to the source and gate
electrodes can be used to turn on and off the device and to
tune the frequency response (Figure 2(c)). As shown in
Figure 1, gate biases between 2 V and 4 V will extinguish
the DC conductivity in the source-drain channel. Similarly,
gate biases in the same range inhibit the nonlinear response
in the source-drain channel. The gate bias has little effect on

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103113-3

Irvin et al.

FIG. 3. Frequency and power dependence. (a) Nonlinear current inl

D is plotted
as a function of frequency for several values of incident RF power PRF
between 25 dBm and 10 dBm. (b) inl
D is plotted as a function of incident
RF power PRF for several values of frequency f between 100 kHz and
2.45 GHz. wG 20 nm, VS 5 V, VG 7 V.

the overall shape of the inl

D vs f curve. The effect of changing
VS is to change the overall amplitude of inl
D without tuning
between ON and OFF regimes, which are solely controlled
by VG .
Next, we explore the dependence of inl
D on the incident
as
a
function
of f for sevRF power PRF . Figure 3(a) plots inl
D
eral values of PRF between 25 dBm and 10 dBm. Below
f3dB , the mixed current follows a power law scaling as a
function of RF power (Figure 3(b)). Above f3dB , inl
D follows
a power law above a threshold power. We use these powerdependence measurements to estimate a noise floor of inl
D and
therefore provide an assessment of the likely maximum useable mixer frequency. At 2.45 GHz, when PRF falls below
10 dBm, the mixed current no longer changes, indicating
we have reached the noise floor of our detection electronics.
The current at which this happens is 50 pA and we therefore take this as our noise floor. At PRF 10 dBm, the
measured frequency rolloff extrapolates to a minimum detectable current near 10 GHz.
We have demonstrated the modulation capability of a
SketchFET device at frequencies as high as 2.4 GHz; by
extrapolation, it is clear that even higher operation frequency

Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 103113 (2013)

is possible. These experiments also demonstrate the sensitivity of these devices by virtue of their ability to detect
microwaves on the order of 160 dBm using heterodyne
detection. Compared to prior studies of oxide SketchFETs,5
we have increased the highest operating frequency by two
orders of magnitude. Although many factors may have contributed to this increase, the growth conditions of the samples studied here are such that they minimize the number of
oxygen vacancies,9,10 which may reduce the number of scattering sites and result in an increase of the sample mobility.
Additionally it is unknown what are the sources of the carriers in the ON state. Future studies may also investigate
how the frequency response depends on the DC conductivity
of the nanowires and on the overall device geometry.
One potential application of high-frequency SketchFET
devices is in high-frequency transport characterization of small
molecules or nanostructures. One could place and identify a
nanoscale object on the top LaAlO3 surface, and subsequently
write a SketchFET close by or coinciding with the object.
Electrical coupling could take place through the insulating
LaAlO3 layer. This approach may help to counteract inherent
impedance mismatch, as well as other practical challenges in
making electrical contact to nanoscale objects. In addition to
potential scientific applications such as investigating single
molecules, the demonstrated high current capacity and high
frequency response make these devices potential candidates
for new families of high-speed nanoelectronics.
The authors gratefully acknowledge support from ARO
(W911NF-08-1-0317) (YS, JL), AFOSR (FA9550-12-10268) (JL), NSF Nanoelectronics for 2020 and Beyond
(DMR-1124131) (JL), and an NSF fellowship (TDS).
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