Ambipolar, low-voltage and low-hysteresis PbSe nanowire field-effect transistors by electrolyte gating.

Semiconductor nanowire field-effect transistors (FETs) are interesting for fundamental studies of charge transport as well as possible applications in electronics. Here, we report low-voltage, low-hysteresis and ambipolar PbSe nanowire FETs using electrolyte-gating with ionic liquids and ion gels. We obtain balanced hole and electron mobilities at gate voltages below 1 V. Due to the large effective capacitance of the ionic liquids and thus high charge carrier densities electrolyte-gated nanowire FETs are much less affected by external doping and traps than nanowire FETs with traditional dielectrics such as SiO2. The observed current-voltage characteristics and on/off ratios indicate almost completely transparent Schottky barriers and efficient ambipolar charge injection into a low band gap one-dimensional semiconductor. Finally, we explore the possibility of applying these ambipolar nanowire FETs in complementary inverters for printed electronics.