Lifting the off-state bandgap limit in InAs channel metal-oxide-semiconductor heterostructures of nanometer dimensions

One of the major challenges of high mobility complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuits is to meet off-current requirements of <100 pA/μm for low stand-by power (LSTP) operation due to the small bandgap (≤0.5 eV) of the channel material (bandgap limit). In this work, we present experimental proof that the bandgap limit can be overcome at nanometer dimensions leveraging the phenomenon of steady state deep depletion (SSDD). The occurrence of SSDD is investigated using high-k capacitors with 5 and 10 nm InAs channel on a n- or p-type doped lattice matched wide bandgap AlAsSb layer. Absence of charge carriers at the off-state band edge is observed for 5 nm InAs channel layers demonstrating occurrence of SSDD and lifting of the off-state bandgap limit providing a path to meet LSTP requirements for future high mobility CMOS.